Nine Days To Love a Dragon
by Lovely Grifter
Summary: After 15 years away, Chihiro returns to her home town with her fiancé Hayate, to marry in 9 days. She learns of the impending destruction of the tunnel,and a chance encounter with Haku, forces Chihiro to rethink her life & whether Hayate is the one.
1. Prologue The Night Before

**Summary of story:** Life's been less than rosy for Chihiro since she left the realm, but at last, she's met the man of her dreams, Hayate. She wants to spend the rest of her days with him. Chihiro has returned to her parent's home town where she and Hayate will marry in nine days. Something unexpected happens the first night of Chihiro's return, when she stumbles into a boy who has grown into a man, and faded memories begin to re-surface. Of course, it was Haku. The encounter forces Chihiro to re-examine her past fifteen years, her way of life, and to question if Hayate is the _one_.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**Prologue: The Night Before**

The chirping of cicadas and night crickets brought a crooked smile to her cherub lips. It was Chihiro's first night back at her hometown after fifteen years away. Her parents and Hayate- her fiancé-were at the Shinto pagoda making the final arrangements for their wedding ceremony: scheduled to happen in nine days. She left it to her parents and Hayate to finalize the finer details of the ceremony; Chihiro just wanted the marriage over and done with, caring nothing for the logistics or what the occasion meant to her parents. If she had her way the wedding would only involve her parents, Hayate's parents, and naturally Hayate, _plus_ a quick signature at the registrar's office.

_But I just went with the flow as usual didn't I?_ She exhaled with exasperation at the fuss her family was stirring up over her nuptials.

Since their arrival this morning, she and Hayate had spent most of the day catching up on local gossip in the neighbourhood, making pleasantries as dictated by custom. However, listening to gossip or useless prattle in general was something Chihiro detested, but being the model citizen she was, no one would ever hear her complain.

Except tonight.

Tonight she was adamant on staying home on the farm to visit her beloved Kohaku River. The tiny brook lingered in the recesses of her mind, and with it the countless hours she spent there - from dusk to dawn if possible. She wondered if anything had changed about it during her absence. _Is it still there? _

_Are the reeds still swaying back and forth like a dancing chorus line on the banks? _

_Are the cherry blossom trees still crying over the shores during blossom season?_

The welled up pressure of city life that Chihiro hadn't realized she harboured, seemed to magically lift from her body as she sauntered with bare feet, down to the stretch of water that snaked at the bottom of the lush hill. The green wheat grass cooled her heels, and as she padded over the fine leafy blades, the sensation under her feet cooled and refreshed her worn senses.

Back in Saitama, the city where Chihiro lived, the nights serenaded her with a cacophony of cars screeching by her front door, finished off with a sonnet from her neighbour's blaring television set. It was as if she was living on the set of an action blockbuster every night of her life. The 'tree change' to the country setting and the soft hum of the naturally orchestrated symphony of the insects and night winds, was a welcome respite for her senses. The stressed muscles knotting in her stomach unravelling to the music of her childhood home.

Remarkably, the wedding chaos that buzzed around her like bees to honey began to fade. The jack-hammering talk in her head of: caterers; invitations; calling her relatives; listening politely to her in-laws constant nagging about the microscopic details from her kimono; to her make-up to the colour of the pins that would hold up her hair at the ceremony. A disused mischievous grin pulled at the corners of her mouth.

_Why can't I be allowed to choose any of this? After all, it is MY wedding isn't it?_

Her parents had insisted on a wedding in their hometown and Hayate, had gracefully agreed. This guaranteed the traditional ceremony _would_ have all the bells, whistles and over the top trimmings for the sake of impressing her parents' friends and family; to uphold the honour of the Ogino family, and to keep up with the Yamadas!

_"It's more going to be a stage show than a wedding ceremony!"_ Chihiro hissed ruefully.

Since this morning Chihiro's ears had pleaded for mercy from her parents incessant rambling about _wedding-this_ and _wedding-that_. She needed this eve to savour the quiet company of the whispers of gold fireflies circling her, and silence was the only company she desperately yearned for. This kind of peace, the quietude that protected her tonight was as out of reach in the city, as the stars were out of reach in the indigo canopy of the sky.

This night alone was one Chihrio had longed for and she had finally plucked up the courage to insist upon it. Hayate had agreed to leave her unattended for once. Returning to her long forgotten home town, seduced by the fresh scents of the meadows and winking stars in the heavens, lifted the overwhelmingly claustrophobic weight of city life from her shoulders.

_Why does my familiar life feel so foreign?__ E__verything is just __too__ stifling.__ Maybe I'm too tired to think straight. __Thank heavens I got one night to be in solitude with the dusk of the crisp, clear air... and my own private meanderings._ _Hayate is a wonderful man, save the fact he has a penchant for smothering me with his over-protectiveness at times. He is my Knight in Over-Possessive Armour._ Chihiro chuckled wryly.

Throwing the nagging thoughts from her head, Chihiro broke into a run and burst into hearty unladylike laughter, rotating her lanky arms wildly like crazed propeller blades. It was her personal celebratory gesture of having achieved the 'aloneness' this evening. The sun had bid goodbye over the horizon, ducking behind the distant mountains, leaving a veil of growing darkness between Chihiro and the river. As she bounded down the hill in delirious anticipation of the welcoming waters, she noticed a little too late the figure of a man sitting at the shores.

_What the hell is a man doing by the river this late!_ "WATCH OUT!" she cried, careening into his back with a heavy thud. "_Oh crap!_ I'm SO sorry!" she screamed, as she and the stranger plunged head first into the water. Chihiro gave a screech that was muffled by a mouthful of icy water. The liquid coldness bit into her skin. Chihiro spluttered water from her mouth attempting not to drown in embarrassment. As she struggled to stand from the knee-deep depths of rippling water, she heard a soft laugh from the direction of the mysterious man a few meters away. She saw his lithe figure rise effortlessly from the water, as if he was water itself. From her lowered lids, she spied at him from under her wet fringe as he stood to face her.

_Who is this __guy…__?_

Her heart stalled, afraid of some unimagined horror the stranger would inflict upon her as the water lapped against their bodies. His hypnotic laughter started again. _What is he laughing about?_ She knitted her sopped brows together in consternation. _That laugh doesn't sound like a psychopathic laugh does it?_

"Chihiro. I knew you would come back," and the stranger shyly smiled at her through the gossamer of darkness between them.

She sat like a rock in the water as a shiver of trepidation (mingled with the sensation of her backside freezing off!) crept up her spine.

"H-how did you know my name?" Chihiro stammered in a voice pitched with curiosity and alarm.

Again, there was that gentle, almost teasing laugh. "Don't you remember _me_, Chihiro?"

A pregnant pause thickened between Chihiro and the stranger as she managed to stand on her feet, nowhere near as gracefully as the man.

_Maybe he is a local fisherman?_ _With a somewhat provocative laugh._

She brushed the length of the wet tresses from her face, allowing her eyes a better view of the man. A view that widened her irises to the point they could have filled her entire face. Her jaw dropped like lead into the water with a splash. The beating of her heart hyperventilated, pounding mercilessly, threatening to break free from her rib cage.

Through her mist of cold and darkness, her whiskey brown eyes truly saw, and recognized the _man_ standing in front of her.

_You're no longer a boy..._

She recognized the man's white porcelain skin, the wet emerald black hue of his hair. The slight slant of his almond shaped eyes green of a dark verdant forest. Her heart stalled, when she recognized how and _why_ he was so familiar to her.

_It can't be..._

It was then, the dammed river of her childhood memories burst open, gushing forth all the repressed emotions and events of the bath house.

_Everything._

About the pigs.

About the spirits.

About a dragon.

About..._Haku._

About the bond they forged fifteen years ago. About the _boy_ that had saved her and her parents.

_"H-Haku?" _she stammered, suddenly scorching in the biting temperatures clinging to her skin.

"_Yes_, Chihiro," Haku smiled a masterpiece, that left hearts broken in its wake. "I must admit I am _slightly_ hurt," he hushed in a playful tone, "...that you forgot about _me,"_ he finished stretching his arm towards her, offering his open hand.

_"Come with me."_

_

* * *

_

**AN:** Okie, I've decided insert the original prologue but not in its entirity. The rest of the prologue will be revealed as the story between Chihiro and Haku unravels. Thanks to Frozen Dragon for requesting the prologue be resurrected.

When I first joined the pit, I fell in love with a Spirited Away story called '30 Days to Love a Dragon' by Misty Voughn. It was different from all the other Spirited Away stories because Haku was imperfect, Chihiro wasn't available, and plenty more reasons. I especially loved the Asian voice she embedded into many of the chapters. Unfortunately, the author chose to purge her account and all her stories for paid writing jobs! Needless to say, I was pretty upset she left and took her stories with her, as were many of her fans who requested she send them the unfinished fic and plot summary (me being one of them!). I nagged and nagged her to come back. She politely declined. I literally, sent her at least 40 plus 'beg grovel e-mails' per day to re-post the fic in the past few month alone! Still, she told me to 'sod off' but in the nicest way. FINALLY one night , my persistence paid off and she sent me the fic and told me to do what I wanted with it!! HOORAH! I have a feeling she did it just to stop me from spamming her and to shut my dumb guts!!

I'm **reposting - **with minor edits to the narrative voice- Misty Voughn's fic, because personally, I feel it's too good to die. Not to mention I don't have the talent and knowledge she possessed. If Misty hadn't caved and given me the fic, I was planning to beat her up when I got to Japan! Yep, I've moved to Japan for work but what does the woman do? Move back to Australia to get away from me. Heehee, then I'll get her! If you were one of the many many who had this fic on your favourites list and alerts, please enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing to do with Spirited Away. The characters are borrowed and anything else is MV's property.


	2. The Morning After

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**1: The Morning After**

Construction trucks chugged past the front doors as Chihiro woke from a commotion stirring outside. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes to see the yellow of the sun staining the _tatami_ mats in the room.

"Ah. That river over the hill. It's going to be bulldozed and land filled for a shopping centre! Isn't it great! Civilisation is finally coming to Yamaguchi town, _ne?!"_ Hayate ran out the front door and waved to the sun drenched drivers.

The word 'river' worked better than any alarm Chihiro had ever employed in the past. It sent her scrambling from the futon stumbling to the entry where Hayate and her parents stood. They were all watching the metallic procession of yellow, purple and green bulldozers passing by.

"Brilliant! Dad's fellas are here at last to dig up that damned useless river," Hayate proudly snorted, clapping profusely. "Morning all!" he hollered to even more work men.

"What... what?" Chihiro, half-awake, clung to his arms, "the Kohaku River?" she asked.

"Yes. The Kohaku River _W__est_. The East already has apartments built over it, from the time you were just a baby. This is the only portion that remains," Hayate pointed his fingers up and over the tiny meadow near the house.

"No!" Chihiro blurted, squinting her eyes in disbelief. "You can't!" she screamed in dismay. Completely unaware that the neighbours and work men were ogling at her disheveled hair and night shirt pecked with cheese holes.

"We'd petitioned for almost ten years and only managed to save that river for so long. It's sad, but no one even knows what the rivers original name is any more. Even you don't remember, Chihiro," said Chihiro's mother sagely.

"Haven't you noticed the pink tunnel is also grown over with shrubs and trees? It's going to be torn down soon too," Chihiro's mother added, grimacing at the mechanical monstrosities going by.

It hit Chihiro like a bolt of lightning out of no where. _I know the name!_

"It's the _Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi,_' she murmured, as if chanting spell, "But… you can't destroy it! There are… things there!" Chihiro squawked, quite flabbergasted at the horror waking her.

"This is _fresh_ coming from a real estate agent, Chihiro." Her mother admonished. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden? Leaving us country bumpkins for fifteen years, not caring about a single blade of grass, unless it's sitting on a piece of land you can milk money from, _ne?_ Did something mind-blowing happen last night Chi-chan?" Yuuko Ogino chuckled, laughing at her gawky daughter. "And why on earth would you address a river by calling it _Master_?"

"Have you miraculously turned into an environmental evangelist over night?" her father joined in, affectionately ruffling her morning hair. "_Nushi_ is an honorific form of address for water spirits, honey. The Kohaku River has neither a _kami_ or a spirit."

"But, but…" Chihiro stuttered, cheeks reddening, flustering at the moment she'd stumbled in Haku last night by the river. _He can be my Master any day! _Squealed her fan-girl voice.

"That theme park past the awful pink tunnel is due to be demolished, too. Come to think of it, it's in nine days actually. Oh my, that's your wedding day, sweetheart! What a marvellous coincidence for a real estate agent and her land mogul husband!" Her mother said giddy with pride.

Hayate was indeed a fantastic catch, heeled, good breeding and lineage from one of the richest real estate magnates in the east of Japan. He beamed a smile of satisfaction hearing these words and hugged Chihiro to him. "Won't that be lovely,_ Mrs. Mikado_?" he cooed in her ear, planting a kiss on her forehead.

Chihiro swallowed the uncomfortably peach size lump in her throat. "M-marriage?" and she shifted irritably in a quandary. How could she have totally failed to recall her year long engagement to Hayate, her long time boyfriend? "That's right… I… I came back here to get married," she reminded herself out loud.

"HAHAHAH. Sweet heart. I really don't think I should have left you home last night, to go swimming in that river of yours. The effluence has probably gone to your head, _ne_?" Hayate winked, lightly slapping her on the backside pushing his fiancée off to get changed. "Why don't you go get changed and we'll go out today?"

_Holy cows and pigs__!_ Just twenty four hours ago Chihiro had been a happy-go-lucky-sell-anything-for-profit real estate agent. A city dweller that couldn't care less about a drop of water let alone a flowing river; Coke was her preferred beverage. How twenty-four hours can change someone. And… things had changed. Her brows knitted together in a line of consternation at her predicament as she headed to the bedroom to change.

-x-

She was in a daze sauntering hand in hand with Hayate through the supermarket. Adrift in contemplation about how life had gone from pure contentment to a turmoil of confusion, elation, sadness and foreboding. All nicely gift wrapped in one cruel joke. Like a black hole threatening to suck all the happiness from her past and present worlds.

Last night, her life had collided with the past, literally. Her current fifteen years crashed into an undercurrent of fifteen years of latent wisdom and emotions. How would a life with Haku be possible with a life of Hayate? She bit her lip acknowledging in agony, that it was Haku who clouded her thoughts since last night. If it was so auspicious to find him again, then why did it feel so… wrong? Twenty-four hours ago he was mentally entombed sixty-three feet under denials and childhood suppression. And now, he was in every step she took, lingering in all her waking moments.

A cold sweat and shiver seized Chihiro. She walked hand in hand with Hayate, yet felt nothing of his hand around hers. She had only been ten when she met Haku. Back then she was a spoiled, feckless brat that only knew how to complain. In Haku's world she had been forced to mature quickly in order to survive, adapt and save her parents from damnation as pigs: Haku had protected her, saved her. And meeting him again. Meeting him again felt like she had uncovered lost sunken treasure. A treasure trove abundant in rich sparkling feelings she never knew she had. And who would receive her treasure trove of emotions? Hayate or Haku? Was it possible to unlearn love for Hayate, like it had been so simple to stumble helplessly for Haku at the instance of his voice?

Did she love Hayate? Of course she did. Did she love Haku? Well... if she didn't then she couldn't deny it. The fifteen years apart hadn't doused the flames kindled for him when she was a mere babe. Time had only fanned and seared it even darker to a rosy aching heat. _Absence did make the heart grow fonder, and not go wander._ Chihiro whispered to herself, questioningly.

Back then her love came from an innocent ten-year-old: a sweet, angelic and harmless puppy love. But such feelings harboured by a twenty-five-year-old, engaged woman spelt danger. As a twenty-five-year-old her actions would ripple to others; the honour of her parents, the honour of Hayate's parents, and ultimately, Hayate. Whose only fault were kindness, sincerity, a zany sense of humour, and an understanding of her troubled past.

Then there was Haku, someone who had ceased to exist, until last night. Being selfish at ten years old was acceptable and someone expected of a growing child, but there was much more at stake now, at twenty-five.

* * *

Feedback welcome.

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Spirited Away. I'm borrowing the characters and the magical realm to repost an author's story. Please don't sue me because I've no money! Same goes for any other chapter I'll post for this story.**


	3. The Cold Cherry Blossoms

**Summary:** Follow-on from the previous chapter. After waking up from her first night back at her parent's farm in Tokushima, she goes to the supermarket with Hayate. She's not quite herself.

_**AN: **__Peoples, if I'm on your Author alert for Twilight, those fics will be the ones I update next, after I get settled in Japan. I hope!_

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**2: The Cold Cherry Blossoms**

"CRAP!" Chihiro exclaimed in the frozen section of the supermarket, and slammed the shopping trolley smack into Hayate's hips.

He raised one dark eyebrow in surprise, amusement springing from his ocean green eyes, wincing at his fiancées public emotional outburst. She hadn't mastered the art of deportment or refinement, as a woman in her social position should. Something he would change soon enough.

"Honey, is something wrong?" he asked dropping the pork ribs into their trolley. When Chihiro didn't respond he tugged at her long chocolate coloured braid, "You want me to get traffic lights put in this supermarket?"

"Oh, no, no. I just remembered something I forgot to do this morning," Chihiro lied, staring at Hayate's chest trying to hide her meanderings. How come, yesterday morning she was the happiest woman alive? Only to turn into Japan's most tragic head-case after jumping in the Kohaku River that same night?

Nine days until Kohaku River East was gone. What would happen to Haku and where would he go? He couldn't leave again, could he? Not now. "It can't be this way again, to meet and say good-bye, Haku…," she mumbled under her breath, the throbbing of her pulse tripling at the idea of him.

"Chihiro? _Chi-hi-ro?_" Hayate prodded her playfully in the arm with a packet of dried _somen_ noodles. "Oi! You okay? I've been asking you to get some bottled water and all you've done is stand there and babble incoherently."

"Oh. Sorry. Of course, Hayate" and she grabbed the bottled water. Before, she firmly believed bottled spring water was a marketing gimmick, big bucks for the fat cats. Yet today, she examined the water as a jewel obsessed woman fawned over 'The Millennium Star', a 203.4 carat diamond, the most expensive in the world. Peering into the bubbly liquid and wondering where it came from: if anything magical lived within the plastic prison. Her eyes slid from the white plastic cap to the foot of the bottle, caressing the grooves lovingly with her finger tips.

What was her mother saying this morning…nine days until the destruction of tunnel, the Kohaku River and the land where the enchanted realm lay hidden. _And I'm supposed to celebrate this on my wedding day?_ Chihiro shuddered forlornly. It was a repeat of her childhood nightmares. Only this was a grown up, living nightmare. Were the spirits, Yubaaba, Kamajii and Rin still there? The layers of the past unraveling inside Chihiro's mind stung her darkened fawn eyes; the more she peeled away the more she wanted to cry.

Did Haku know of the imminent destruction? Then it struck Chihiro: why was Haku _outside_ the enchanted land last night, sitting by his river? When as a child he could not cross over to the human world?

"_Ha-ku,_" Chihiro uttered his name to remind herself, in spite of her denials in the past fifteen years, he _was_ real. A dull ache pounded in her chest with each syllable of his name. The avalanching fear twisted tighter in the pit of her stomach. And unconsciously, she cradled the large water bottle to her chest.

"Chihiro!" Hayate gritted furtively, stony eyes fixed on Chihiro. "What's wrong? You okay? You've been acting very strange since this morning." He held her chin up to scan what her eyes might reveal, that her lips weren't saying.

Was it fatigue or confusion about literally, running in Haku last night that disturbed Chihiro? _It shouldn't be this way, it's been so long, we're basically strangers,_ Chihiro silently counseled herself, trying to untangle the buds of uncertainty blooming in her mind. _I can't just let the enchanted land be destroyed. What about Haku? _The stream of questions rushed through Chihiro's mind, as Hayate tried frantically to wake her out of stupor. Until, all went dark before.

"Please don't hurt …" and the energy drained from her limbs.

"Chihiro!"

-x-

A slit of glazed yellow light broke the darkness, as Chihiro pried her heavy lids open. What had happened? She was back in her parent's house, lying in the _futon_. The _shoji _sliding doors opened into the garden, inviting in the late afternoon breeze. The quilt of rice patties spread on the surrounding mountains provided a green canvas of tranquility. Quixotic night bird songs carried on the wind: the weight blanketing her heart lifting temporarily, from Chihiro's anxieties. Slowly she peeled herself free of the covers, a sudden hollow ache rapped at her forehead. She said, _"I must have passed out in the supermarket."_

Hayate constantly and mercilessly joked she was a little odd, a bit of a lovely lunatic. Others weren't so polilte. Today, she had proven that beyond every possible doubt. "I guess today gave all the proof you need that I'm foolish _and_ insane: exactly like everyone said. Maybe… it's a chance for you to forget about marrying me…" Chihiro unwittingly confessed her heart's deepest desire, her insecurities surfacing from its hidden depths.

"Marrying you? I sure am. In nine days," came a voice through a tiny crack in the _shoji_ sliding doors. Hayate stuck his nose in, grinning goofishly, checking if Chihiro was dozing. "Chihiro, darling you had me pretty scared. You passed out," Hayate's tone was affectionate and tender, coming to sit beside her. His hands automatically went to her tensed shoulders, massaging the coiled muscles, the way she begged him to on a daily basis back in the city.

This time however, Chihiro froze and recoiled: a reaction surprising even to herself. It was an instinctive response to shirk any man's touch, because she had no wish to betray Haku. _Betray on Haku!? How can I cheat on him when he isn't even mine! _Chihiro shrieked incredulously, a violent tremor shot up her spine. She shuffled to the veranda, stealing time to regain composure, sucking the sweet dewy air through her mouth, deep into her lungs. Chihiro prayed the fresh air could bring clarity to her topsy-turvy mind, because of her encounter with Haku the previous night. _Why did I let you kiss me, Haku? It was a mistake, a spur of the moment thing… _Her ashen hands clawed the wooden posts of the veranda: her body raked in turmoil. _I can't be cheating on Haku, I barely know him! I'm betraying Hayate. NO! I'm cheating on Haku. NO! I'm betraying them both at once!_

"This is insane!" Chihiro spat vehemently, her lips quivering with anger. She rolled her eyes upwards forcing the tears back.

"Chihiro?" Hayate strode over to hold her, flattening his palm to her sweat beaded temple. "Come here," he bundled her tight to him, wanting to allay her sadness, quash what was ailing her. Something was obviously bothering her, she was never this weak minded back home in the city. "Is it the wedding that's stressing you out? Because it's all taken care of, _ne_? Our parents are doing a great job, Chihiro. It'll be perfect, I promise you," Hayate's said very gently, with reassurance.

Chihiro stood in silence the falling twilight shadows cloaking her. _I was so happy and content when we arrived yesterday in Tokushima! Incredibly over the moon about MY wedding that until yesterday was the most magnificent day, in my unremarkable life._ And it was so, until yesterday night when she stumbled into Haku by the river. _What a razor sharp line there is between bliss and sorrow,_ Chihiro lamented, distraught. She shook her head hard, as if the action would dispel her errant feelings for Haku- the familiar stranger- far, far away.

"You know whatever it is, you can tell me. I can try to help," Hayate kissed her head fervently, resting his chin over her head.

"We have to stop the landfill of the river, Hayate. We have to stop the demolition of the tunnel…a-and the meadow. It's not right…" and her tears won over, soaking into Hayate's linen shirts he loved to wear.

"Precious, it's only disused land and an old polluted waterway. We need to progress. The only way to do that is by getting rid of the old, to build the new. Remember? That's what made you a top notch sales agent in the Saitama. Finding useless land, and preparing the estate for new modern facilities for businesses and families; like a family we'll have one day."

Hayate's statement thickened Chihiro's blood in her veins. Why? She couldn't fathom. What an empty and materialistic existence she'd led until she came back to Tokushima. Her bones grew brittle with shame of her total disregard for countless spirits and enchanted worlds she must have inadvertently destroyed. Spirits she'd helped kill, spoil or left homeless: all for a profit! Now, the mere hint of marriage cut at her like a barbed object. She was inexplicable torn, the emotional rip gashing raw and deep, bleeding through bitter tears.

"It's wrong Hayate. I… I can't do that anymore. It's harmful… to things we can't see or understand," she defended for the absent spirits and _kami_ who could not speak for themselves. Tears brimming within another tear, pushing herself from her fiancé.

Hayate arms bound like steel around Chihiro's waist, disturbed at the abrupt change to his fiancée. "_Chihiro?"_ Hayate's voice whipped hard and sharp. "That was what you _LOVED_ about your job back home, finding land for the _kill_, as you used to say. What's changed since we arrived yesterday?" The glint in his eyes bright and acerbic.

"I'm sorry Hayate. You're right. I'm probably tired and strained with so much going on. I-I need to go for a walk," Chihiro expounded weakly, and stepped from the verandah down towards the meadow.

-x-

The blades of moistened grass shooting up between her bare toes cooled her heated senses. Reflexively, Chihiro padded down to the river, where _he_ had been in the shadows last night. Heading to the river she'd loved as child, was as natural as the sun rising each dawn. It was the only place she longed to be, even after a fifteen year absence.

The river drew close, the hemline of the dusk sky glimmering orange pink over the river bed. Cherry blossom petals danced on the along a gentle wind, the water lapping onto the shores tinkling like glass. The misty air hung with a delicate flora fragrance from the trees skirting the shores. Sent to live with her aunty in the city all those years ago, Chihiro had compartmentalized her adoration of nature and its treasures into the vault her mind. Burying with it the distress and embarrassment she'd caused her parents all those years.

How could she have forgotten all of this? At home in the Saitama city, there was no walking barefooted on grass or otherwise. That's if she could even find any grass! Saitama was wintry throughout the four seasons, an unfeeling concrete city; the armpit of industrious Japan. It was the polar opposite of her parent's home town, here. Her eyes swept from the weeping willows at the opposite shore to the swinging reeds a few meters from her.

"Haku?" she whispered hesitantly, pausing at the river bank, staring into the darkening night waters. "Are you here?" This patch of ground by the swaying reeds was the very spot she had found him yesterday. Totally unaware it had been Haku, who she had accidentally knocked into the water as she sprinted from the hilltop. _Will he be here tonight?_ "Fifteen years…" she swallowed an apple size lump in the throat, the salty tang of dried tears hung in her mouth, "And I only have nine days… nine days, Haku."

The surface of the waters ebbed slightly: then the waves seemed to freeze in time. The night sounds surrounding Chihiro died momentarily with a peculiar quietude, before the water resumed its elegant roll down stream. _Just my imagination!_ Chihiro complained to herself, eagerly stooping her face closer to the water.

"Chihiro, you came for me?" a voice as silken as an angel's harp, asked from behind her. Haku's tone was a little surprised, tinged with joy.

Chihiro's jumped out of her skin at his deathly quiet approach from thin air. A warm fire flared wildly in what had moments before been the heavy rock of her heart.

"Haku?" Chihiro shyly turned on her heel, scorching crimson at the sight of him, smiling appreciatively at her. Her heart performed back flips recalling their fleeting embrace by the river last night: the tenderness of his arms around her, the herb sweet jasmine scent of his skin, the lingering taste of his mouth remained, tingled on her lips from their first kiss. Then, he had vanished into the night, continuing to live on as an enigma of her life. Leaving her to wander back to her parent's farm to lose her to the bliss of sleep: dreaming of him until the tractors had woken her.

_What did I come here for?! _Chihiro hollered inwardly, dazed at his omni-presence. She secretly admired the lithe V shape of Haku's physique, the impeccable pristine lines of his silk _hakama _outfit: a silver grey top and cyan blue pants. His black hair gleamed preternaturally with forest green sheen. The long locks tied high on his head, the satin like tresses swayed slightly ending at his waist.

An unbridled new terror flooded her mind: about the landfill; the demolition of the tunnel; Hayate. Why did she feel compelled to tell Haku everything? It was all too sudden…too late to think of anyone but Hayate! "_I-I need to tell you something, Haku,"_ Chihiro stammered in a thin, troubled voice.

Haku strode with grace and purpose towards Chihiro, pausing under the verdant leafy umbrella of the cherry blossom trees. "Of course, Chihiro. It has been a long time indeed since we last met, _ne?_" He said with care and understanding.

The sunset gust billowed the sleeves of Chihiro's pastel blue _yukata_ – a light summer kimono- as she cautiously stepped towards the cherry blossom tree. Confidence and conviction steeled her courage, "I was worried about you. I wanted to see you," she confessed timidly. The final light of the setting sun cast radiance over Haku's porcelain fine and impossibly flawless skin, accentuating the angles of his ethereal oriental features. In this red twilight his eyes were pools of a crystal green. He was more _beautiful_ as a man than when he was a young boy.

"I will always be here, Chihiro. Whenever you call," he explained, his smile spreading to his eyes. He kept his distance, motionless where he stood. "Is something bothering you, Chihiro? Is that why tears fall from your eyes? Like when your parents were turned to swine?"

This made Chihiro giggle a little, too happy to recall those innocent and carefree days where she didn't have to worry about weddings, her fiancé, her parents honour, and an unanticipated reunion with her denied, and impermissible past. She managed an awkward chuckle through her sobs. Haku's words evoked images of her as a child in the magical realm, stuffing her face with the _onigiri_ - rice balls- Haku had given her all those years ago. _"I put a spell on it to give you back your strength. Just eat it," _he'd said.

How she wished to eat a BIG fat _onigiri_ to solve all her ills now. "I… I need to tell you some… things, Haku. _Important_… things. It has been a long time since we met… And we've both grown up. And things _change_."

Haku offered sagely, "I understand, Chihiro. Change is the only certainty in the world _ne?_ Tell me. I will listen." His lips pulled up into a playful, beguiling smile.

Haku's words empowered Chihiro with a faith to divulge all. To trust that her honesty would set everything right again: everything would flow with the will of _karma_. She inhaled, standing by the river watching his elegant form under the pastel and white cherry blooms. "Haku, there is someone I want to tell you about, that I'm enga…"

_"Chihiro! What the hell are you doing at that damn river, again?"_ Hayate boomed, shattering the solitude and tranquility of the river. Shattering Chihiro's intimate moments with Haku, their harmony broken to shards: even upsetting the cherry blossoms in the trees that rustled above them.

"Hayate?" Chihiro flung her gaze over to Hayate, as he stomped wildly down the hill.

"I-I'm fine. I just wanted to be alone!" She snapped her eyes frantically to Haku who now wore an unusual and questioning mask on his alabaster face. His expression was set in stone, taken aback at hearing another man speak to Chihiro so sternly: lambasting him, nature, and the Kohaku River so callously.

Chihiro, unwilling to reveal Haku, ran quickly to Hayate as he approached to scoop her into his arms.

A cool invaded Haku's face as he witnessed this. His upturned lips straightened to a thin white line, eyes fierce and hard as artic emeralds. The exact expression he wore when Chihiro first met him while he was under Yubaaba's control.

Chihiro's wide eyes, appealed apologetically to Haku who remained chilled under the cherry blossoms. _"I'm sorry,"_ she rasped regrettably to him, while Hayate carried her back up the hill. Her eyes stayed on Haku until her fiancé carried her beyond the trees and over the horizon.

"It's okay, honey. Just don't go near that water again. It's not good for you." Hayate chided, very upset at Chihiro, unhappy at the fact she'd run from him. "It'll be gone soon enough."

The river spirit watched in a tomblike silence until the human forms vanished, over the rolling green meadow. Soundlessly, Haku slipped into the velvet indigo sky as a glimmering silver white dragon: the cold cherry blossoms spiraling after him, in abject solace and sympathy.

* * *

Woohoo! Tk U to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter. Wanted to get this posted before I boarded my plane to Japan!!! YAH! I fly out tonight for my 10.5 hour flight to Narita!! Can't wait to get there and getting started for work! I've edited portions of the original chapter by Misty Voughn. Obviously, guys and gals don't quite write the same, generally. Anyway, love reviews. So who is Chihiro cheating on? Well, personally I'd say she's cheating on Hayate. Period.

Sorry, I don't have a beta for this fic, so expect stupid mistakes. Meh, unfortunately I'm a mere human. Plz point them out and I'll sure fix'em. Sooty, yep I'll get in her face when she gets back to Japan for X-mas! AsianFlipgirl, yep, all the spamming paid off! Kittenhood I love you too!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Spirited Away.**


	4. Something Inconsequential

**AN: **Sorry if you're waiting for my HMC update. I'm updating this first cz Spellbound and Japan are killing my brain at the moment. I've no beta so apologies for silly mistakes - unfortunately, I'm a mere human.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**3: Something Inconsequential**

Streaks of white gleaming metal slashed through thin air, the motions moved at light speed in spherical patterns, flitting and whipping across and around the room.

Steel bit into steel, slashing, defending and dancing a deadly clash of _sai_ versus _katana _sword to the backdrop of blue plain of the sea. The two lithe figures sparred, dressed only in _hakama_ pants, _tabi_ socks and _zori_ thongs. Their torsos bare glistening and alluring. Beads of sweat resembled pearls sliding off dreamlike sculpted physiques with impossibly blemish free skin; they could only be Heaven sent – _kami._

"Just fight!" roared one, his eyes green embers of hostility.

Gripping the _katana_ with both hands, he spotted a weakness in his opponent's defense. The double-edged razor sharp blade skimmed over Raiden's chiseled face leaving a red mark across his jaw. His quicksilver silken mane barely saved by a last minute graceful arch backwards.

_"Why..."_ Raiden chuckled mischievously, quickly recovering his centre of balance, "have you chosen to holiday in the human world, merely to return a sour grape, is beyond me!" Crash came the _katana_ blade, impacting hard, trapped between the _sai_ trident. A translucent blue rim vibrated around the blade as they both stood locked in a stale mate.

Both men faced off, _sai_ poised against _katana_ sword. Their figures – one towering over the other- silhouetted black to the canvas of the cerise beyond the windows. Their staggered breathing told the story of their drawn out sparring session. One man untangled his perfect killing weapon sheathed it noiselessly into its home on the wall at the side of the dojo, his jade eyes still iridescent with adrenaline.

"I am an earth spirit and need to know the ways of the human word," Haku replied in a flat tone, wiping his lean, muscular body with a towel he'd moved telekinetically from the side bars. "I shan't be returning to that world, Raiden."

Raiden's crackling cerise orbs glowed and his mouth curled wryly, suspicious as to why his young friend had abruptly returned to the realm. Even as the God of Thunder and Lighting, he never could have summoned up the torrential storm to match the one in his friend's eyes. They'd dueled like demons for the past twelve hours, but the thunder remained in Haku's eyes, marbled in his countenance and concrete, set jaw. Raiden peered woefully at his magical _sai_, severely chipped and battered from the water spirit's raging _katana_. Something was obviously consuming his friend. He pitched his _sai_ forward and the _tsuba_ points landed at the ground at Haku's socked feet.

"You owe me a new pair, Haku. Three years forged by the old man Kuroi in _Takama-gahara- _High Plain of Heaven and dwelling place of all _kami_- and you hack them to shreds in a twelve hour tantrum. Next time, just get hanky panky with one of those lady guests lining up to get with you, _ne_? Don't take it out on me," he joked good-naturedly, slapping his young friend hard on the back. "Or my toys."

"The _sai_ I will replace," Haku slipped on his _musashi_ top. "So what ladies might entertain me, tonight?" his eyes vacant, his lips smiling, convincing himself another could sustain him. He was steeled to take his friend's advice to forget. It was _karma _ordained.

"Ah. That's the way, dragon boy. Thank the _kami_ the years spent at that river haven't washed away your er…tendencies," Raiden grinned roguishly. "Let's go celebrate your home-coming with these twins that checked in today," the _shoji_ door magically slid closed after the departure of the two devastatingly striking _kami,_ that would reduce a stony mountain to a boiling puddle of capitulation.

-x-

Chihiro had snuck out of her parent's house late, late in the night. She was desperate to explain everything to Haku. To erase the icy glint in his eyes the night before. But no matter how much she called for him, he didn't appear. So she had waded knee deep into his waters, then waist deep, finally immersing in the chilled water, waiting until dawn for him.

But he never appeared.

He was gone.

She had lost Haku just as she had found her.

Hayate's protectiveness that kept her safe in the last five years had ended her beginning with Haku, before it had begun. She blamed Hayate for it wholeheartedly, for Haku's departure. Rationally, she knew her vehemence towards Hayate was illogical: but her emotions were beyond her reach. Haku was gone, along with the chance for Chihiro to vindicate herself. Misery loves company, and Chihiro's misery amounted to one thousand, two-hundred and thirty million people dragging her down in his waters.

Where was he?

Chihiro's silent pleas knelled incessantly in head until sleep consumed her in the early morning on her return to the farm.

-x-

Breakfast at the Ogino farm was served with a side of bad temper and sprinkled with antagonistic side glances. Chihiro glared acrimoniously at the miso soup, rice and grilled salmon steak, unable to look Hayate, in case her eyes turned him to stone.

Across the table, her parents' eyes darted between Hayate and their daughter, unsure of what the lovers' tiff was about. They understood too well their daughter's quicksilver, unpredictable temperament. They also understood the obvious chagrin of their future son in law. And being the sympathetic parents they were had no intention of becoming tangled in the tryst. So, they wolfed down their food and raced from the kitchen smiling politely mumbling something about cabbages and kumquats.

"Maybe she didn't give him any last night, honey_... ne?"_ Chihiro's father whispered to his wife as they closed the door.

"You're incorrigible!" gasped Chihiro's mother in consternation, flushing to her middle age cheeks.

Hayate hadn't missed Chihiro's erratic behaviour for the past two days, and knew better than to tackle her temper head on: too smart to tempt a stampeding bull. Placing the chopsticks on his bowl he asked sympathetically, "Sweetheart, is there something wrong? You've been churlish and a little preoccupied since we arrived. Couldn't you have tried to at least be civilized in front of your parents?"

Chihiro sipped on her soup and took mouthfuls of rice: silently fuming. If steam could have spout from her ears, it would have. _Honey, I'm rather pissed off because you interrupted my secret rendezvous with my long lost dragon and water spirit whom everyone told me to tell myself never existed. He's gone and I can't find him. It's your fault. BTW I think I might kinda-sorta-possibly be being unfaithful to you by the idea of him._

She detested Hayate for being abysmally understanding and kind when all she wanted to do was throttle him!

_Haku leaving: must be karma warning me not to stray_ Chihiro rationalized to herself. He was a spirit and not of her world. She was not of his. They had only shared a few fleeting hours that night, shared one brief, inconsequential kiss. Logic directed her to let him go. She was committed to Hayate. But if the situation was inconsequential, than why was she battling herself to find him again?

Chihiro lightly sucked on the rim of her bowl, reliving Haku's kiss, supple, barely a graze, yet still present: her lips tingled merrily like bells at the thought of it. Her heart fainted reliving it.

"Damn fish!" Chihiro stabbed the innocent, lifeless salmon steak with her chopsticks blaming it for her woes. "Take that!" she snapped, cutting it in half.

"Chihiro!" Hayate's patience also snapped clean, annoyed with his constant one way conversation. "_QUIT_ acting like an insipid brat. It's not about that pitiful river I dragged you from last night is it?"

"The Nigihayami Kohaku is _NOT_ pitiful. It's only _small_ because _your_ family built over the rest, Hayate!" Chihiro's voice rose sharply, and she thumped her bowl to the table; a long suppressed oppression suddenly rearing. She stomped for the door letting her chair fall and hit the floor with a dull thud behind her.

A steel grip locked her wrist, wheeling her round to face a livid fiancé.

"_Watch your mouth,_ Chihiro. You've worked and profited in my father's company for the last five years, too," his words stung like venom. "Maybe the crap and sludge in that water has gotten to you. It's the only reason you'd spew out this ridiculous nonsense!" his eyes a darkened with anger. "My future _wife_ shouldn't be speaking to me like this either, Chihiro."

He'd never raised a harsh word, let alone his voice. He never had provocation until now. Chihiro knew she was in the wrong, though too maddened at herself. She was riddled with guilt of Haku seeing her in Hayate's arms to see clearly, beyond her fog of raw emotions. She pulled from Hayate's grip in vain, dropping her gaze to the ground towards the door.

"I'm not letting go until you _tell_ me what's gotten into you. Is it those damn dreams again?" Hayate demanded, yanking her by both wrists to him.

She stared blankly at his chest forgetting to breath: her quiet firing his rage.

"TELL ME!" his voice whipped harshly, the veins in his temples began to twitch.

"Let go of me! You don't own me, Hayate, and I _do_ have a right to want to be away from you for more than three seconds!"

Fleeing from the house Chihiro's feet went on automatic pilot to the river.

-x-

_"Haku, please, please… please,"_ but the only response were the rolling, placid ripples of water against the shores.

There was only an abandoned river: somber, spiritless water- exactly as Hayate had said. Even the birds and insects seemed to have stopped singing, the sky bled of its lively blue.

"Where's he gone?" Chihiro entreated to the umbrella of cherry blossoms over her. "If you tell me where he is, I swear I'll never to pick any one of you or your family again. I'll only ever take the fallen from the ground," her eyes widened with child like sincerity, staring sightlessly to the blushes of pastel flora. The cherry blossoms fluttered, some spiraling from their branches towards the heavens, but gave no discernable answer.

Chihiro sunk to her knees, and plucked despondently at the blades of grass under her, wishing she return to the moment Hayate had stomped down the hill last night. _Don't be silly, he is a spirit, a dragon, a kami. He's gone and doesn't want you,_ her voice consoled. _You don't even know him…_

"SHUT UP!" she lashed vehemently to herself. She was being foolish, wanting a stranger she didn't know. Her russet eyes slid downward wearily to the carpet of green between her knees, "I'd rather hear your voice one more time saying goodbye, than never hearing it again," she confessed, broken for some indiscernible. The hollow grief bottomed out Chihiro's stomach, the winds brushed over her carrying with it a caress of floral scents. Instinctively, she curled into a ball under the cherry blossom trees and began weeping, like the trees did over the river banks; about that kiss she told her was inconsequential.

* * *

**AN:** Reviews and comments appreciated- who doesn't eh? Raiden? You'll learn more about him in later chapters if you already don't know about him from the original posting of this story.

Misty Voughn's original chapter was called 'Thunder and Lighting'. However, I've broken the chapter in two and did a little editing. 90% of her writing remains intact: I'm just lucky enough to adjust portions of her awesome fic. I'm hoping to meet her when she flies back to JP for Xmas before she runs away to Australia again.

I was watching TV the other day and they showed a documentary on Hayao Miyazaki and the making of Ponyo Off the Clip (?) and showed footage of him penciling the original story board. He's so insanely talented and if I understood the Japanese correctly, it took him a year to finish his scamps!! WOH!!! I'm so going to visit his museum next March! Yep, the good thing about being in Japan is HAVING to re-learn Japanese and then some.


	5. A Road to Destiny

**AN:**The second half of the original 'Thunder and Lightning' chapter. I'm off to Kobe for shougatsu in a few days. MERRY CHRISTMAS and hope you got something cool from Santa. Lots of Japanese'ish mythology coming up. If you didn't understand something let me know, cause I'm not going to write essay length ANs to explain things like the lovely MV did. And most returning readers probably know it all. Jaa na mina!

**-xx-xx-xx-**

**4: The Road to Destiny**

The sun beat against Chihiro as she walked home from the river: each step, leaden. Her pale skin began to scorch through her white linen baby doll dress, but misery is a connoisseur at numbing all sensation. Chihiro pulled the straw hat from her Death Note tote bag, and slapped it over her head. As she ambled on the dirt path she caught a glimpse of the pink tunnel she'd eyed two days earlier through the overgrown line of trees. Some of the pink, green and yellow trucks were there. The verdant fortress of plants that had the day before that barricaded the entry had been hacked away by the workmen. The morning glory fairing better, swathed around the sides of the tunnel, and a mountain of cut down roots, branches, gigantic tree trunks and creepers were piled high, making an impenetrable fortress on either side of the entry.

"I'm sorry they wounded and cut you down." Chihiro pressed her palms together in prayer, eyes closing, apologizing to a _kami_ she knew must have suffered, infinitely.

She paused in front of the petite stone _kami_effigy that sat smiling cordially at the entry. Covered with a film of moss his expression remained jubilant and tranquil. Chihiro swayed unawares, gazing through the tunnel entry with red rimmed eyes. It afforded a kaleidoscope view into the enchanted realm: the faint sunlight bathing the park benches in the waiting area, shrinking to a pinprick of the meadows at the opposite end.

After hours spent weeping in self-pity laced with confusion under the cherry blossom trees, Chihiro had chosen: to abide by her convictions and her commitment, to honour Hayate. It wasn't too late to climb out of the quick sand her emotions had stumbled into. "_It's time to grow up Chihiro!"_She reproached herself for the conduct of the past few days, unconsciously grinding her feet hard into the dirt path. The tunnel began to shimmer and undulate for a moment, and Chihiro tasted the unwanted tears touching her lips. "This is insane!" she shrieked to the too cheerful sky, burying the heels of her palms to her eyes. _"It didn't exist. It doesn't exist,"_ she chanted the sutra like, biting her lip until it bled, shaking her head as if to expel the torrent of emotions crashing over her.

It was time to go home.

Go back to her simple, peaceful life as it was, until yesterday. To dispel memories that never existed, that had caused her family untold embarrassment and turmoil; memories that plagued her childhood; that weren't allowed to survive her world.

_Crack!_ A thunderous clap of lightning abruptly lashed at the ancient tree a few feet away from the tunnel. The deafening strike on dried wood echoed around the valley. Instinctively, Chihiro sprang backwards from the blast. The ageless tree missed her by a hairs breath and thumped heavily a few centimeters sandaled feet.

"_What the?"_ her heart somersaulted twice, before she fell onto her rump. "W-where the hell did thunder come from! It's a SUNNY day!" Trembling uncontrollably from shock, Chihiro brushed the stray leaves and splinters from the fallen tree off her dress, gathering her limbs from the near fatal accident. The Death Note tote hung limp from her bloodless fingers. Her straw hat wasn't as healthy, crushed under the huge tree.

Then the realization struck her. She was trapped within the forest fortress. Jammed between the walls of branches on either side, the gigantic tree blocked her way home- to Hayate- leaving a path to a single destination; in search of help.

-x-

Her pulse froze, each breath labored as she mechanically set one foot in front of the other into the tunnel. "_Why is this happening?"_Chihiro hissed to herself, fighting the hyperventilation burning her chest.

The winds played with her long braids as Chihiro followed the dirt path, surrounded by a carpet of perfect green grass swaying in the winds. The meadows were peppered with bobbing foxgloves and white snowdrops. The rolling green knoll was cut off at the horizon by a barren gulf littered with rocks. Another tiny piece of a censored jigsaw clicked into place. _This_ was the gorge that would flood over at dusk, to fill into a river.

She continued pensively towards the dried up gulf. With each step her brain pulsed with anticipation, or was it foreboding? She had resolved not to look back at the river, the enchanted land: to forge ahead and not behind her path of life. Then why was her way home, blocked? Were the _kami_ manipulating her every move?

_"Come on dark!"_ she screamed at the banks of the parched stream, spurring on nature, warring with a natural foe. _"Get this over with and I'll go back to my life!"_

Maybe the tree was a sign. Perhaps this was destiny's will. But she felt so tired now, completely drained to question the trails of her life: possibly irrevocably scarred to attempt questioning it or karma again. Destiny gives us choices, and we choose our fate. This fate, going into the realm _wasn't_ of her choice. So was it her destiny, then?

Her shoulders hung heavily with fatigue, scanning the maze of countless boulders she'd need to weave through to cross the gorge. It would squander too much time and energy; and she had the luxury of neither. Chihiro decided to scuttle over the boulders, straight over to the stairs instead: anything to expedite her away from this place. Rash re-actions usually, are mistakes realized after the fact. Chihiro's weakened ankles (and mind) landed sideways, sending her crashing to the steps. Her bony face breaking the fall with an unhealthy crunch. She heard bones cracking, grinding like someone was chewing ice in her ears. A warm iron taste flooded her mouth. Stars, birds and pigs circled around her head. Or was she the one swimming around stars, birds and pigs? _Note to self, cement steps don't make good pillows,_ she humoured dryly, distracting herself from the throbbing hell she'd literally, crashed into. _Break face on soft pillow next time._ She giggled weakly.

Chihiro locked her eyes on the L embroidered on her tote bag, its contents strewn a few steps away. She lay motionless in shock, broken physically and mentally. The sun began to dip behind the clock tower and recalled it was critical move, _now!_

Successively blows of a sledge hammer pounded in her head, as Chihiro edged up the steps. A web of screams clawed her body with searing pain at every movement. Her bones were splintering around her ankle like cracking ice. Crimson chunks hung off the bones off her ballooned wrists ballooned: they had taken the brunt of her fall.

Red rain fell to the steps mingled with the clear droplets from her eyes. The frog sculpture at the top of the steps started spitting rudely from the top landing, reviving Chihiro with liquid icy snap. A catnap – a rest here- was not an option. The ferry of _kami_ and spirits would soon alight and her shadow was melting into the darkness.

The unattended street of food stalls didn't tempt or scare Chihiro at all as lugged her battered self past them. The street truly did resemble an abandoned amusement park as her father had once said, except for the stained glass windows that sparkled as if someone or thing, had recently cleaned them. It hadn't felt romantic the first time she'd come through it; and nothing had changed this coming.

_Once you've seen spirits selling food to the kami, you've seen them all,_ she humoured balefully, grinding her teeth to suppress the winces.

By some means, Chihiro hauled herself to the wooden bridge. She grinned reminiscently seeing the flag with _Abura-ya_ swinging in full glory as it had fifteen years ago. _I made it._ It hadn't aged in the least, but she had. This was very spot, that Haku had chased her back to the tunnel.

The first luminescent golden flames flickered into the lanterns. The daylight became streaked with crimson cherry. Stars began to wink and flirt with her from the canopy of the sky. Tangy scent of conifer trees teased her nose. The waters below the bridge lapped merrily. The crickets began singing. Everything was ruthlessly picturesque and splendid: Chihiro was the damaged and incongruous human being in this world, again.

Frogmen and workers magically appeared from nowhere at the opposite end of the bridge. She waved her hand for attention, only to discover in a shock horror _it_ was vanishing, like her last ounce of strength bled into the ground. Her knees caved inwards, guiding her head in the ideal trajectory to the red bridge railing with a dull _THUD!_That got the workers attention.

"It's a human!"

Agony wanted to toy with Chihiro a little longer, because it refused to let her faint when she hit the ground. Frogmen arms lugged her from the ground, towing her limp body across the bridge. Instinctively, she held her breath. _Ah… they won't be able to smell or detect me,_she chuckled like the mentally unbalanced human everyone believed her to be. "_Haku?"_ She peeped with a mad giggle.

"Yes. I'm sure Haku-_sama_ will make short work of you, human! _Oh the SMELL!"_ cried one voice dramatically.

"His mood has been foul since his return. I can't wait! Raiden-_sama_ has been demanding human meat for a while too!" said a second voice eagerly.

-x-

Chihiro clung to an inch of consciousness her head flopped from her neck like wet mop head. The scenery smeared past her eyes. There were countless rooms, ancient murals, ink painted screens. Feet pounded on floorboards, herbal scents of the baths misted the hallways. A lift delivered Chihiro to her final destination. Two burgundy coloured doors gilded with gold opened with a _swoosh_into a darkened sparsely furnished room, lit by red embers from the fire. The pain ravaging her body by now was numb and all consuming._Why does it hurt so much if I'm vanishing in this world?_Chihiro mumbled to herself.

"_Go!"_ clipped an arctic cold, familiar tone that pried her lids to flutter open. The frogmen unceremoniously slumped Chihiro the ground. She completely tattered, bleeding and enervated to complain.

"Yes, sir," and they were gone.

The quiet was deafening and maimed her just as much as the physical nightmare. All she could discern were the dancing flames in the fireplace, the crackling seduction between the logs.

"_Ouch,"_ was Chihiro's delayed response. Soft thumping sounds reverberated under her ears, muffled by the plush Persian mat. If this was death knocking at her door, she welcomed it simply to escape the excruciating hurt raping her.

"How _dare_you?" the electric shock of Haku's voice cut through the darkness. "How _dare_ you do something so reckless, so _utterly stupid?"_he raged._"You could have been killed!"_

Haku knelt down crushing Chihiro into his arms, hurling his fury with liquid eloquence over her head, even as he stroked her blood-caked hair. He clasped the nape of her neck with the flat of his hands, lifting her face upwards to inspect the maelstrom of over her face. Her suffering was his, and it was unspeakable.

"Chihiro, you_mad stupid girl!"_Haku choked beneath his hard facade, forcing a piece of bread into her swollen mouth. "Swallow!" his eyes pulsed with temper and astonishment. The emotions mingled with worry, and softness, clearly discernible despite the dark of their surrounds, the roughness of his touch and the savagery of his mood.

_"You're here…?"_ she rasped thankfully, inhaling his herbal scent. She wanted to confess all to him right then and there. But her battered body disagreed, conquering her stubborn mental conviction, forcing her leaden lids closed, her arms sagging lifeless to the ground.

"_Yes,"_ he whispered despairingly, cradling her limp body to his chest. "_Yes,"_ his single word translating a _kami_ lifetime of sadness and happiness. The sight of the bloodied and bruised girl boiled his blood as the image of her, in another man's arms. Yet his icy heart thawed. He lifted Chihiro tenderly so as not to hurt her frail state, carrying her through his study to his room, placing her softly on the golden satin covers of his bed.

Murmuring in ancient tongue, he hovered the flat of his hands over to smooth the hurt from her brow and skin, wiping the swell from her mouth, healing the broken bones, before casting a spell to rapture her with peace.

_"By the winds and waters that bind me, I command human pain and carnage depart from this girls form. Let sleep, comfort seduce and love her tonight."_

Once Haku knew the pain was taken from Chihiro, he ran his fingers through his long tied mane hanging down his back. He watched the moonlight lightly wash over her through the windows. His jaw clinched tight, drawing his mouth to an impatient line of wrath.

"Where is this_Ha-ya-te_, Chihiro?" Blood red flashes of _that_ man he had seen carrying Chihiro the night before. He grated his perfect white teeth in rage, crazed with jealousy thinking of any man but him, touching her. Fifteen years since he last saw Chihiro: the fire she'd ignited in him flared wildly never fading. His slender, strong pale fingers traced the line of her lips, using his _reiki_ to magically erase the clotted crimson smears from her visage, a fire storm of feelings and torment violently stirring in his emerald orbs. _"Why is this happening again?"_

AN: I've no beta so gomen for silly mistakes. Yep, Christmas Day and I'm at work. Yep, that's Japan all right. Most people celebrate Xmas on Dec 24 with friends and parties. A lot of people treat Xmas like Valentine's Day too. Different strokes for different folks. I wished all of my colleagues 'Merry Xmas' this morning and they smiled politely at me (some laughed) thinking I was nuts! lol. MERRY XMAS everyone.

_**Ne (pronounced neh):**____is a tag that is often used in Japanese- in case u didn't know. It means something along the line of 'right? isn't right? ok?'_

_**Takama-ga-hara(high heaven's plain):**____means Heaven of the Gods, often referred to in Japanese mythology._It is believed to connect to the Earth by _Ama-no uki-hashi_ - the 'Floating Bridge of Heaven'.

_**Re**__**i**__**ki:**____the art of healing that Haku uses by moving his hands over people to heal their 'chi' life force and energy._

_**Sama**____(Master/Lord): 'Sama' form of san and often used in place of__**'Master'**__for a person's Liege Lord or leader. You'll here is in a lot of Japanese period dramas and anime._


	6. The Decisions I Choices

**AN:** Sorry to everyone on the alerts. This isn't a new chapter. I've inserted part of MV's original prologue and need to shift the chapters up to create space for it. Truly sorry folks. The prologue is available to read if you're bored. Hee

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Summary of the next four 'Decision' chapters : _Chihiro wakes up the day after she's trapped and badly hurt in the realm of the bath house- Haku heals her. The morning after orders Rin to return Chihiro to the human world._

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**5: The Decisions I - The Morning After**

"Girl friend, check it out! You actually got tits and ass girl!" a strangely familiar voice pulled Chihiro from her blissful slumber. She woke staring out at an unfamiliar sky through the crystal clear windows. Outside, ancient conifer trees and cypress curled upwards towards the heavens painted cerise with white clouds of candy floss. _Where am I?_ She mewed, stretching long and languid between the silk futon covers.

Struggling upwards, Chihiro squinted cautiously to survey her surrounds, partly in fear, but mostly because her lids were still weighted by sleep. The walls around her stretched floor to ceiling with panel ink paintings of ornate mountains and water scapes. _Tatami _mats covered the floor and she was lying in a divinely soft and peachy warm bed.

"Oi! You take off for fifteen years and forget about me, eh?" the voice nudged again from the end of her bed. Rubbing away the haze of slumber from her eyes, Chihiro discerned the reminiscent faded red _samue_ – Japanese tunic- of a lanky _yuna_ with mousey brown hair, high arched brows, pert nose and tiny beaded mouth.

"Rin!" she cried scurrying over the covers to hug the slug spirit, another part of her life, long lost and buried in her mind.

"Oh gosh, I guess the water works mean you're happy to see me?" Rin grinned ear to ear, her voice effervescent. "I missed you too, kid." Rin slapped Chihiro hard on the back, twice to assure Chihiro she wasn't dreaming.

"Where am I?" Chihiro asked, her eyes darting side to side over Rin's shoulder, yet disorientated with morning grogginess.

"Where else? Lover boy's room of course," Rin replied matter-of-factly, releasing Chihiro from her bear hug.

Everything tumbled back into her mind with the impact avalanche. _Of course__!_ _I'm __in the bath house__!_ "Oh _kami-sama! _Oh god!" A replay of her adventures into the realm last night spun at the forefront of her mind. _Haku!_ _I need to find him…and…and…I'll think of something when I find him! "Yoshi! _I have to go Rin." Chihiro squirmed and shoved Rin from her, goose bumps popping from the tips of her toes to her scalp as she did so. "Why's it so col—?" she asked curiously, looking down. "My clothes!" she wailed, eyes looming at her naked body flaming crimson: promptly jumping back under the covers.

"I came in earlier to bathe you. Your clothes are drying. You certainly were a mess," Rin chided with a feigned shiver. "Oh and don't worry. Dragon breath hasn't seen anything. _Or_ _h__as he?"_ she jabbed wickedly.

"Of course not!" Chihiro bellowed, embarrassed by the insinuation, curling up tighter under the covers with mortification…at the idea that sounded rather…appealing.

"How was I supposed to know, _ne_? I come in and find you in his bed and all," Rin teased picking the bowl of rice topped with tempura from her wooden carry bucket. "Now quit with the drama kiddo. I've got the same accessories on my body too, so don't worry. It's way past breakfast. Eat up. I can't believe how much you've grown!" she smiled pinching Chihiro's cheeks, pulling at the covers. "Humans are so adorable!"

The sight of food sent Chihiro's stomach drumming louder than _taiko_ drums. "FOOD!" Chihiro beamed, grabbing the bowl and shovelled the rice in her mouth. She beamed over the rim of her bowl at Rin, who in return perked jovially, happy to see Chihiro at one hundred percent again. As all humans do, Chihiro had matured with the flora and fauna, but Rin on the other hand hadn't changed since Chihiro saw her last.

A knock sounded on the _shoji_ doors interrupting their silent happy reunion, "She's naked!" yelled Rin to the visitor. "Come on in before she isn't!"

The _shoji_ door slid open soundlessly and in stepped, Haku. He donned silk _hakama_ pants perfectly pleated and a pristine silver _kosode_ top. Nothing about him was out of place. His emerald black hair was tied up high on his head, swaying as he strode with purpose towards Chihiro, oblivious to Rin's presence. He seemed to move in slow motion as Chihiro saw him approach. The recollection of the intimacy in his voice last night painted her cheeks apple red. So Chihiro quickly dipped her face back into the bowl, to covet the school girl giddiness at the sight of him. His movements were stealth reincarnate, stopping at the end of the bed behind Rin, watching Chihiro through vacant eyes.

_Maybe, just maybe... _Chihiro's mind contemplated, her heart somersaulting, pretending not to notice him noticing her.

Haku stood like a wall of marble impenetrable silence. He took the bowl without a word as Chihiro sat mid-mouthful of rice, and handed it to Rin, his eyes a dark impenetrable night, his face without expression.

"She goes home, Rin, as I told you earlier. She can't stay here. Make sure she is gone the next time I see you," he stated with authority and started for the door, walking with an elegant force that promised retribution if Rin was to disobey his order. Rin was to vacate the realm of Chihiro.

Chihiro's mouth hung open full of rice, a few grains tumbling to the bed. The colouring of content on her cheeks of seconds earlier seared to vermillion at the uncouth manner Haku had exacted upon her. Her teeth buzzed as she clamped her mouth shut, glowering in disbelief at Haku striding off without so much as a good morning. _Had something changed since last night?_ Chihiro's mind pounded in confusion and panic. W_as I that out of it when I thought he was worried about__ me__?_She hadn't known what to expect because Chihiro hadn't planned on entering the realm. Last night he was fire and now, he was brittle ice itself. Her pride boiled with acrimony at the indignity Haku's behaviour. _Of all the arrogance!_

"Am I invisible, Rin? Or was I dreaming when a dragon _boy,_ shoved food down my throat last night!" Chihiro gritted sarcastically. Her blood rushed about in her brain whirling with wrath.

Rin sat on the bed swinging her crossed legs up and down. She picked under her fingernails, smirking innocently, biting down on her tongue trying not to laugh. Something was clearly going on between the couple that was far too entertaining to interrupt. The electricity zipping between Haku and Chihiro was enough fuel the bathhouse for countless sunrises. _Could save us a bucket in bills!_ Rin mused to herself.

"If you didn't want me here why didn't you just leave me be last night?!" Chihiro shot balefully. Why was he being like this?

Haku's feet flattened to the ground, a sign of the calm before the storm, his fists clenched in the folds of his royal blue cerise pants. His shoulders rigid an imposing figure, a slammed door to Chihiro's face.

His quiet fuelled her rage and emotional wound ever more so. "You could have saved Rin the trouble and just let me disappear!" Her eyes bored holes into his back, shimmering at the mess she fallen into.

"By the time I'm back, Rin," Haku clipped clerically, the _shoji_ sliding open for his exit.

Chihiro's throat tightened, her heart clawed at her chest, realizing Haku's back was the last she would see of him. Unable to move, unable to think coherently Chihiro flicked her eyes to the stare unseeingly at the too beautiful morning sky.

"Er… but Sen, no sorry, _Chihiro's_ ankle is um, still bunged up! Look!" Rin winked slyly at an injured Chirhiro, deftly raising her wooden bucket high, slamming it smack down on Chihiro's ankles under the blanket."There's no way I can drag her to the tunnel in this condition!" she bellowed to reaffirm her statement.

"OWWW!" Chihiro wailed in shock, tears springing to her eyes at the blow that shattered her frail ankle. She bit down on the covers and clutched at the excruciating screaming of her bones. "_What did you do that for?!"_ The bone fractures crept around her ankle, and pinched Chihiro's face with torture. _"Are you laughing you crazy woman!?" _

The shoji door slammed shut.

Haku sprang in one graceful motion to the bed thundering, "Rin! How _DARE_ you hurt her?" his voice whipped low and hard. With a simple motion of his hand the errant _yuna_ was flung from the bed, crashing to the far corner of the room, his eyes tearing her to shreds. In blinding speed, he tore the blanket from the bed to inspect Chihiro's ankles.

"If you can hurt her, why can't I? You think you're such a big bad dragon?" Rin snorted haughtily, pouting her lips while gathering her lanky limbs to stand. She flicked her glossy brown bangs shaking her butt at Haku, stomping indignantly out of the room. _Mission accomplished!_ Rin smirked closing the door behind her, dusting off her hands in satisfaction. "Have fun, Chihiro."

Chihiro tugged furtively at the blankets trapped between Haku's fingers, thanking all the stars in the heavens he hadn't turned his attentions back to her. Unfortunately, her gratitude was premature. _Oh hell!__ "__AH! D__-d__on't look!"_ Chihiro wailed wishing some magical hole would swallow her up. Instinctively, her fingers fanned wide, flying between her legs and chest.

Haku's eyes widened as his irises dilated, flooding with ungoverned intensity, unable to tear his gaze away from the site that greeted him. The hand that held the blanket in the air also had a mind of its own, quite happy where it was. His eyes drank in the vision of her peachy cream pink skin, clad in a gauze loincloth and a singlet of the same clothe that left nothing to the imagination.

_"Haku!" _Chihiro screamed horrified, yet strangely elated at what was hidden behind his eyes, grabbing a nearby cushion to cover her feminine assets.

The spirit and Chihiro were unmoving and deaf to the world like age old sculptures, suspended in their own time, that neither of them heard the soft slide of the door.

_"Whoooaaa baby!"_ drawled Raiden. "My man, the Hak-myster. You sly dragon, you. Still a bit rough with the ladies I see," the God of Thunder and Lighting eyed the blanket in mid air. Anyone entering the room would have jumped to the same conclusion: seeing Haku hovering with apparent menace over Chihiro. Whose near naked form was cowering behind a cushion, her eyes overflowing red and raw with tears.

The spell Chihiro's body had cast over Haku was broken. The water spirit whipped around to find Raiden lazily leaning on the door cornice.

"I'm not interrupting an intimate moment, am I?" he winked mischievously holding up his index finger, conjuring a tiny flash of lightning. "How about a threesome? It's been a while, since I've had a human delicacy."

Life in the human world was never this interesting or earth shatteringly humiliating. To say Chihiro was a deer caught in a thousand headlights was indeed an understatement. Forgotten was the blistering and throbbing ache at her ankle. All that mattered was her entire body was prickling and bubbling ruby as Raiden appreciated her, rather nefariously.

_Funky kami-sama of mine!__H__e's__ so__HOT__!_ She gushed privately, ashamed of her own excitement at seeing this tanned, perfectly proportioned and spectacularly muscled specimen of a God-man-thing, watching her, perving at him.

Haku threw the blanket over Chihiro shooting a Raiden a '_G__et your filthy eyes off her__!'_ glare.

"All right, all right. I know when I'm not wanted, kid. Catch you later, sweetie pie," Raiden blew a kiss at Chihiro, peaking over Haku's head. And with a flash of smoke, he teleported away.

"_Wow…"_ gasped Chihiro in awe fanning herself with gale force winds. Even Raiden's lingering smoke was crazy-sexy-cool.

Then reality thumped her over the head again. She was indecently naked before a dragon-water-spirit thing who wanted to throw her out of his world! The undeniable truth tugged at her chest, and Chihiro yanked the blanket around her neck trying to wriggle and retreat from him. Cursing under her breath: at Rin; at herself; at Haku; the earth that kept spinning just to spit her, and suppressing the hurt and humiliation of it all. She never felt more helpless, an injured corned animal in her life. She glowered at the fine brocade of the blanket, her face drawn and grieved.

Gold flecks of sunshine glinted in Haku's eyes before the cold jaded green quickly reappeared. He was now politely perched at the edge of the bed. "It's okay, Chihiro. Raiden's gone now," said his officious voice, an utmost diplomat.

But it wasn't Raiden that concerned Chihiro. The hairs spiked on her arms and neck nervous at Haku's proximity, the intimacy of being in his room, on his bed. Unable to breath, let alone shove him from her. It took her conscious effort to tell her brain to send a signal to her heart just to beat…and beat. Finally, she slid her eyes to the face that had haunted her existence for countless nights.

Haku's thick dark lashes hid his expression along with his hanging fringe, as he gingerly pushed the blankets to expose her plum pounded limb. Chihiro concentrated on a non-existent stain on the silk sheets, feigning indifference to the scorch and tenderness of his hands.

"Your body still isn't part of the realm yet, it hasn't hardened. That's why Rin could injure you so easily," Haku explained perfunctorily, his slender fingers grazing the bump, that now passed for ankle.

_Okay, gushing and flushing done!_ Her self-respect (and aftermath of Haku's blatant rejection) overtook the hammering pang in her ankles. The emotional injury of his aloofness drove right through her ribs. _You're such a jerk! Typical man, dragon, spirit-kami-thing!_She was going to kill Rin, or break every bone in that skinny woman's body trying, for leaving her alone with Haku like this. "_I'm fine_," she spat vehemently, flatly ignoring his placating gaze. "I'll get ready to leave when Rin comes back. I don't need your help, Haku," she declared unconvincingly, swinging her legs over the bed edge, biting back the scream. _If you want me to go, I'll go._

"_You're not going anywhere,"_ Haku commanded, his voice hedged with uncertainty. A slight aura of energy pressed Chihiro firmly back onto the bed as Haku stood up. His sharp eyes pierced her defiance, bursting her much warranted pride. "_Stay!"_ He grabbed her ankles with impatience, kneeling at the bed.

She would have yelped in protest, but the anticipated agony vanished at the idea of his touch: that healed her. "T-Thank you, Haku," Chihiro stammered diverting her eyes to the window, pink dusting her cheeks. Was that a smile she spotted trying to trick his lips upwards? Or maybe it was her blood singing choruses because he wasn't letting her leave? Her eyes pointed down to the one kneeled at her feet, anticipating at least a friendly word. Instead, Haku kept his head bowed to her, gently placed her feet flat on the ground before exiting without so much as a syllable.

"Haku?" Chihiro's voice lingered after him.

Seconds passed as eons after Haku's departure when Chihiro woke from her coma of shock and perceived abandonment. More than the _shoji_ closed between them this morning.

-x-

"Father! You've got to help me!" Hayate stormed into the family home. "It's Chihiro. I think she's gone into that run down tunnel! She could be hurt! We need help!"

"Hayate dear. Calm down. What happened?" Akio Ogino asked trying to calm his frenzied future son-in-law. Hayate spluttered it all out between gulps of water, catching his breath from the run home. All the workers had gone home for the weekend. The trucks were of no use when he tried to remove the offending trees.

Chihiro's parents sighed, their faces suddenly ageing ten years. "Has she ever told you about the…stories she created as a child? About that place?"

Hayate paused, staring at the swilling liquid in the glass in his hands. "Not really. She was vague and only told me a fairy tale about losing her name, and some dragon-boy. I humoured her at the beginning…I thought she'd put all that behind her." Hayate recounted their last three years together, burying his head in his hands, stricken with regret and anguish. "I shouldn't have brought her back here…you were right to send her away."

"The poor thing used to wake up in tears, begging for a boy named 'Haku' all the time. She suffered in school. She couldn't study and insisted on going the little inlet she calls the Kohaku River, every chance she could. We were at our wits end, but didn't want to put her on medication or get her counselling, nor cause trouble for her teachers. And you know how cruel kids can be. In the end, we had to send her away to her aunty in the city. It took a few years, but distance helped erase those stories she fabricated. I think she was just lonely for her old friends and wanted attention," mother Ogino retold Chihiro's child hold tales, shaking her head with disappointment. Lamentably, her daughter hadn't grown up after all.

"Haku?" Hayate brows jerk high with recognition. "I've heard her mumbling that name in the past few days. Do you think she's regressing now that she is back here?"

"I hope not." Her parents looked at each other, eyes pensive.

"I need to get through that fortress of wood. I need to see what's in that place. She must have gone in there. Please, tell me everything."

* * *

**AN:** Ah! Sorry I'm not able to publish this fic as quickly as I'd like. I was about to give up editing this chapter cause I'm too buggered from work. However, luckily I FINALLY got a chance to meet up with the original author on her visit to Japan!! YEAH! Nice and CUTE woman! Anyhoo, she's gotten me so addicted to a Japanese song, that she thought about for the sequel to this fic she'll never write!! Thanks to her help, I've made some noticeable edits to the next four chapters. 'Noticeable' to me cause I have the original chapters. Love any feed back.


	7. The Decisions II Chihiro

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**7: The Decisions II - Chihiro**

Chihiro slept just past noon, awoken by the alarm of larking birds outside Haku's chamber. Sunbeams slanted through the windows to the _tatami_ floor. She yawned stretching long and languid, arms over her head. She rolled onto her side to find a timeworn looking scroll, tied with a red ribbon placed on to the side of pillow.

"That's just a temporary solution so you won't fade away on us." It was Rin. "Here, put these on," and the familiar faded pink _jinbe_ tunic was thrown on Chihiro's chest. "I'm just as happy if you want to walk around without a stitch on," she teased, winking from the end of the bed. "_So__ooo_ did the man-dragon get a good look earlier, _ne, ne_?"

This snapped Chihiro out of her grogginess. She pursed her lips shooting the impish _yuna_ a look that could have crushed diamond, and hurriedly dressed. Rin tossed her a scorching hot and moistened towelette after she was done, to wipe the morning stupor off her face. Once bright-eyed and awake she spotted the offending wooden bucket -murder weapon on her ankles- hanging from Rin's sadistic hands. _Revenge__!_ She battle-cried inwardly. "Give me that bucket!"

"Why?" Rin's brows shot up suspiciously, retreating from the bed making, bucket safely hidden behind her.

"So I can beat you with it into next week!" Chihiro chuckled vengefully, trying to deck the slug spirit.

Rin jutted her tongue out, snickering as she dodged behind Haku's bed. "It was a damn miracle lizard-face didn't tear me limb from limb for touching you!"

At the reminder, Chihiro's eyes darkened over with black emotional storm. Why had he been so...distant that morning? She didn't know, and attempted not to care. She simply wanted to leave, go back to Hayate; mischievous revenge forgotten.

"Look, kiddo. At least I stole some quality time for you, _ne_? Despite being a water spirit, _kami_, huffing puffing dragon…actually, don't quote me on the 'puffing' thing. You've definitely chinked some scales in Haku-zilla's armour. I'd stake my skinny behind on it." Rin speculated confidently, "even though he was a bit of nut case this morning."

Chihiro's gaze fell to the ground, her lids at half mast. The confusion, hurt and fear in her head whirring so loud Rin almost heard it. "I…," she hesitated to release the furtiveness embroiling her. She threw her gaze to the windows, to the distant hem of the horizon. "Rin…,"and at that, began to unravel her entangled life since her departure from the realm. She recounted from the period she left the bathhouse as a child, ending with the cherry trees and Haku discovering Hayate. She slumped onto the bed, unsure of why she was inflicting the _yuna _with the gory details of her banal, yet convoluted life.

"Jeez... and I thought scrubbing crap from bathtubs was bad," Rin replied with sympathy. "Well, if he can't get rid of you by the peak of the moon tonight, you'll be stuck here for a few days at least. So don't sweat the life-scarring-traumatic-little stuff, _ne_? He'll have to be on his best behaviour when Ryujin-sama and the other guests check in anyway."

_"Ryujin-sama?"_ Chihiro stared owlishly at Rin, standing to attention at the name she'd only heard about in legends and myths.

"Will you look at that? We're both the same height! And it was only yesterday you were barely four feet tall," Rin prattled on, derailing Chihiro's depressive train of thought. "_Ne?"_ She finished with forced joviality, ruffling Chihiro's chestnut hair.

"Who is _Ryujin-sama_ and what do you _mean_ I can't go home if I don't leave by today? That's what you mean by the peak of the moon, right?" A steamroller of humiliation and anger now replaced the train of depression. She needed to leave; wanted to put a world's distance between her and Haku. He'd been a walking Arctic blizzard on a bad day this morning. _He can't use P.M.S. as an excuse that's for sure!_ Chihiro humoured bitterly to herself.

He could have asked her to stay, but hadn't. There was no point of staying nor should she have ever entertained the notion of thinking about the notion! Besides, it was impossible for a human to exist in this place.

Chihiro's eyes flashed with realization; a light bulb of understanding going off in her head. _The parchment!_ That's how she had a job, and managed to remain in the bathhouse when she was a child. She picked up the sandy coloured parchment from the bed and unfurled it.

"It's your contract to work here, Chihiro. Don't tell me you forgot that, too? All you have to do it sign it, and Haku's your uncle, or one snip and Haku's your aunt too I guess!" Rin guffawed wickedly at the image of 'Aunty Haku'.

Chihiro's expression froze into the reality confronting her- and she let the parchment spring back to its original shape. _I have to leave. There's Hayate__,_ whispered her committal voice. She shook her head, systematically catapulting the idea of remaining in this world out of her mind. "I… I can't stay here, Rin." She thrust her arm outwards towards Rin, handing back the contract, again, attempting to distance herself from any remnants of this world. "I don't belong here." Chihiro forced out the barbed declaration, as a stern reminder to herself. "Take it. _Please_. I didn't have a choice back then. This time, I do. There is no excuse for me to stay, Rin."

There would be no mention of erratic feelings, lost or reborn. It was simply ridiculous to think there could be anything.... She was an engaged woman, to marry in nine days. Haku couldn't wait to be rid of her and it was evident from the disdain etched across his face this morning. _Rin probably managed to beg or manipulate Yu-baaba to give __me__ the contract somehow__,_ Chihiro reasoned to herself. "Please, take it Rin," Chihiro demanded weakly, her stomach bottoming out.

"Chihiro..." Rin's voice uncharacteristically softened. "Are you sure?" She sounded a little surprised.

"_After the rain falls, the earth hardens, the skies clear._ Adversity builds character!_"_ her mother incessantly drummed into her. She'd had a gut full of adversity as it was, yet Chihiro's character remained a gaunt skeleton, still unfleshed. She stared in solace into the vault of sky. The day was sparkling clarion blue. _A_ _day symbolic of making a crystal-clear, fine, and honourable decision,_ she mediated. Moreover, she'd promised her honour to Hayate, as her hand in marriage. Her duty was to her parents, to compensate for all the pain and shame she'd inflicted upon them. "I want to keep my name, my identity. I have a life back in my world, Rin. I-I… made a commitment to Hayate. My fiancé is waiting for me, I just can't forget about it all because…," and her voice faded into disallowed regret and reflections.

"Chihiro, it's okay, _ne,"_ Rin was unaccustomed to emotional outburst, but was an accustomed victim to the uppity tantrums of the spirits and _kami_ visiting the bathhouse. Comforting stress and hurt didn't come with her job description, nor was it a skill she'd learnt. But she tried, coming towards Chihiro to rest her hand on very tense and bowed shoulders.

Chihiro kept her eyes peeled to the skyline – her honourable decision as fair and unclouded as celestial daylight. "I-I didn't mean to come here. I'd decided not to but… it sounds absolutely idiotic, but this clap of thunder came from nowhere! I was trapped…"

Rin heard the sound of paper crunching and rolled her eyes down to see Chihiro strangling the parchment between whitened, trembling fingers.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Chihiro stated unequivocally, shaking her head determinedly; shoving the unsigned contract into Rin's hand. "I shouldn't be here, Rin. Please take me home, now._"_

Rin watched the turmoil strike over Chihiro's features. "It's okay, Chihiro. I get it. You don't have to explain, kid. How you managed to survive and function after your 'Yu-baaba-licious vacation' here was damn amazing!" Rin threw the parchment onto the bed, thinking it unwise to carry something that in Chihiro's eyes; was a scripture of torment. "I can come back for it later. Come on, kid. Let's go home. Home is where Hayate is, _ne_?"

Chihiro replied in a disembodied tone, "Yes, Rin." As she padded towards the door, a pale blue tote bag caught her eye. It was her Hello Kitty bag on a _kotatsu_ – low set table. "How did this get here from the steps by the river?" Chihiro asked, grabbing her prized possession on the way out. She deliberately forbade herself to look back as the _shoji _door closed behind her. _I'm creating a waterfall out of a droplet,_ she scolded herself. _Farewell__ Haku.__ Thank you for the hospitality. _

-x-

The sights and sounds of the bathhouse awed Chihiro as Rin rushed her past the frogmen and countless _yuna_. They pretended not to notice the human stench lingering after her as she descended to the lower floors at the start of a business day. In the caverns of her memories, visions of the bathhouse hung only as faded ink paintings.

"Where, where is Yu-baaba?" Chihiro asked Rin as she concentrated on climbing down even more wooden stairs. The stairs and floors as they descended grew less ornate, becoming grotty and beaten. Washing was strung around the walls and the stale smell of wet clothes clouded Chihiro's nose.

"She's gone, banished." Rin replied without remorse, between breaths. "It's been a while now. That's why Raiden-_sama_ is here to oversee the realm until things get sorted out."

The intensive stair-master workout finally ended at what Chihiro recalled as the basement. Gigantic spinning cogs spooling the lifts, rattled the basement floor with incessant mini earthquakes. The oily stench of the machinery hung in the air, and Chihiro unconsciously ground her teeth to the gyrating rhythm of the clogs.

"S-So... who arranged that contract then?" Chihiro asked through gritted teeth, her interest peaked. Was there a new _obaaba_ – old woman or old hag- for the bathhouse? Where was Yu-baaba?

Rin grinned incredulously, peering up from her squatted position in front of the boiler room door. "You're either absurdly modest, or you're that dense I could use your head to crack granite, you know that?" Rin heaved the wooden door to one side. "Wait here. I need to grab some herbs and medication for Zeniiba."

_"__Ehh__?__ Rocks? Boulders?__"_ Chihiro shrilled over the cogs after Rin. It _couldn't_ be. She blinked, quashing the silly sprout of hope from her head. _You're turning a droplet into an ocean now! _She chastised herself.

A heady scent of herbs laced with charred coals wafted from the opening, assaulting Chihiro's senses, and veiled memories. _Kamajii and the susuwatari!_ Her heart skipped like a child at play. She scurried through the square opening, beaming as she scanned the boiler room, orange shadows swaying against the walls.

_"Kamajii!"_ Chihiro wailed through the tiny door watching Rin, taking a wicker basket of dried herbs wrapped of brown paper. Herb tokens bobbed up and down just above Kamijii's head and flames licked in the furnace at the far wall. She'd forgotten the warmth that permeated in this boiler room. Nevertheless, it wasn't the fire from the furnace that she recalled, but the glow of Kamijii and soot balls.

"Kamaijii!" Chihiro shrieked a second time and Rin clamped her hands to her ears.

"All right, already! The old man heard yah kid! Last I checked, he wasn't death!" Rin threw Sen a playful look of death.

Kamajii's black grandpa glasses, his six arms came down to hug Chihiro as she scurried to his sitting block. He still donned the disturbingly tight black lycra like bodysuit. "My, my Sen, haven't you blossomed into a lovely young woman," he said in a gruff, teddy bear timber.

The soot balls bounced up and down, squealing, "_E__ep eep eep,"_ in delight greeting Chihiro, their white ping-pong eyes growing wider. Chihiro waved to them with a huge toothy grin, accepting Kamajii's six-armed hug while doing so.

_"You know I'm here?"_ Chihiro asked with disbelief.

"Sweet heart. Everyone's _not_ talking about a human lass, who managed to kick Haku out of his own chamber to spend a night in a guest room. _Oh _the shame for that boy!" Kamajii chortled as he tickled Chihiro. "_Ne?"_

"Oh..." she whimpered, blushing from her toes to the roots of her hair, at the fact people were gossiping about _them_. She wasn't anywhere near gossip worthy in high school!

"Come on, Chihiro. Get your skinny butt moving. I gotta get these to Zeniiba before she croaks it, chicky babe," Rin clipped impatiently, peeling Chihiro from Kamajii.

"_What?"_ Chihiro rasped quite enjoying the old man's embrace. _Rin__'s__ blessed with __the gift of __sarcas__m and__ probably meant Zeniiba __is__ simply__ sick; the __flu perhaps? Do they get flus in this world?_ Chihiro surmised privately. "You're joking about Zeniiba, right?" She intoned expectantly, prodding Rin's shoulder with her finger. The grim expression touching Rin's features said otherwise. Chihiro spun in a panic to Kamaijii, who wore the same grave emotion on his wrinkled, moustached face.

"I'm sorry, Chihiro, but I gotta go, kid. Zeniiba is in pretty bad shape and the train's coming. It's the last one for the day," Rin expounded hurrying to the door. "Thanks for the stash Kamajii."

"But, but…" Chihiro stammered, dumbfounded at this unwanted and startling revelation.

"_Come on! _I gotta get you back to the tunnel before the train gets here. Move it!" Rin beckoned Chihiro to follow, a little irritated.

Chihiro ground her bare feet into the floorboards; in a tug of war between her will to stay, and Rin's will to make her go. _No news is good news never rang as true than now! _Chihiro lamented. Why was it that her path home, back to Hayate was twisting once again?

"Chihiro! I'm not joking!" Rin bellowed.

"I-if I go with you, can I make it back in time before _the__-whatever-happens-to-the-moon_ you were talking about?" Chihiro stammered. A curl of dread and guilt her chest, her heart wept quietly, thinking of Zeniiba dying.

Rin ogled at Chihiro in disbelief, promptly shooting a questioning gaze at Kamajii.

"Yes, if you hurry," Kamajii replied shoving train tickets in Chihiro's hand. "Now, go before it's too late," and Rin and Chihiro made a dash for the platform.

-x-

She didn't belong to this world; his _suiren_ was out of reach, even sitting beside him. When the frogman brought Chihiro to him within a breath of her life, it was destiny's caution to him. He'd healed her, and sat guard over her from the shadows of his room. As he had in the years after she left his world; and until the day, she no longer came to his river near her parent's farm. His wise friend had tutored him, _"When the heart demands, the head must deliberate. What the wisdom of the mind decrees, the will must __follow."_ Yet Haku was still feeble in the method of the mind, and his will refused to follow. His patience was impatient. He felt undeserving of his status, feeling a simple apparition of a deity.

The fact that she belonged to _that_ man undeniably relegated him into her past. Hayate, was Chihiro's stepping stone away from her past misfortunes, from him and this world; Hayate was her path her to a safe, earthly destiny. _Then why had their paths crossed once more? Karma?_ Haku's mind studied the situation, through the night as she slumbered safe under his wake. He'd played a game of mental _shogi_ —Japanese chess—in his head, and lost the battle no matter what strategy and moves he employed.

His shadow grew long, as he walked soundlessly down the golden hued wooden hallway. Wall sconces cast amber arcs of light onto the floor. The piquant of pine oil and incense wafted in the air. He'd given Rin the contract, to bide time for Chihiro and possibly himself, to heal. His behaviour this morning had been deplorable; if warranted, to force her back to the sanctuary of her world. But the sight of Chihiro in his room: her morning hair; the owl like eyes that saw everything without judging, weakened his conviction to return her to safety; to protect her from herself; and from his proscribed emotions. He was weak sapling, and figured himself unworthy. His selfishness of embracing Chihiro, that night at the river…, and his self-indulgence of attempting to bind her to his world, was irrevocable proof of that. He was no _kami; _he was a torpid, pathetic veil of a breathing creature.

_Maybe she__'ll__ forgive __me __for this__ morning__,_ he hoped, hesitating at the door to his chambers. The hour for sleep was upon the bathhouse, and Chihiro, Haku presumed, was safely in the protection of his quarters. He withheld the magic of the doors, and knocked. There was no response. He slowly slid the _shoji _door open manually. An unusual sensation of anticipation palpitated in his chest. A smile played at the corners of his mouth. As the door slid open, what greeted Haku, was the solitary glow of yellow cast from oils lamps, and the conservation of the crackling logs in the fireplace. His bed was untouched. Everything was as it should have been, before Chihiro came; devoid of attachment and personal possession. She was a mirage fading into nothingness before he'd reached her.

"Chihiro?" Haku whispered to himself, waiting for a voice he knew would never come. He purposefully scanned the room from his dresser, study, passing the windows ending at his bed, where he saw a scroll. The contract he'd arranged for her, crumpled beyond recognition. He whipped to the bed tearing the parchment open; absent of her signature, as was the bathhouse was of her. His eyes darkened into a jade frenzy and his fingers crushed the useless scroll—and rejection— into a ball of lilac tangerine flames in his chorded fist.

His back rippled violently from the nape of his neck down his spine. Peaks of gleaming silver white arcs pierced through his skin. The floorboards and ceilings of the bathhouse rattled, as Haku soared into the setting sea of afternoon sky. He would rip that _yuna_ limb from limb for allowing Chihiro to leave the realm.

* * *

**AN: **I hope these Kanji characters will show up on your screens. The adage 雨が降って地固まるあめがふってじかたまる for me, is interpreted NOT translated as 'After the rain, the earth hardens, and skies clear'. It was the quote used for when Chihiro thought back to her mother's words of wisdom. Well, I got this update up before the one month mark. BOO YEAH! I'm addicted BIG TIME to a computer game that I'm neglecting my paid work and everything else as u'd guess. Anyhoo, love any comments.

I've no beta for this fic. I've tried to pick out as many mistakes as I can, but after reading it a gazillion times, I'm sure to have missed many. Sorry. Moreover, if a computer can't pick up the grammatical boo boos and typos, I won't be able to either. lol.


	8. The Decisions III Raiden

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**8: The Decision III - Raiden**

On the same day, at the same time that Chihiro and Rin made their dash for the train, Raiden was scouting the last perimeter of the realm. Tonight was the night the _kamikakushi_ force field would dome over, at the peak of the moon – midnight human time – in preparation for Ryujin's arrival. The late afternoon weather was breezy, azure skies dotted with wispy clouds that moved gently across the skyline. Below the picture-perfect ceiling of nature, striding in the green field was his muscular figure in a white _hakama_ outfit, with a cobalt sash round his narrow waist. Gamboling around the imposing figure was a tumescent white wolf.

Raiden grunted, shaking his head viciously fighting off the urge to settle down in the plush wheat grass for an afternoon siesta. He brushed the loose strands of white hair that had escaped the rest, tied behind his head from his tanned, angular face. This was the fourth and final cardinal point his thunder beast had marked out for him. He'd sealed the North, South and Eastern cardinal points that day, the west was the last.

"Can you believe it, Raiju? One of the oldest _kami_ alive, an elder who helped create the very earth and look at me now, relegated to security duties!" he joked, placing the back of one hand to his forehead daintily imitating a damsel in distress, flailing the other arm behind his impossibly toned back.

"I'm too damn _H-O-T_ to for this kinda _thang!"_ he chortled to his thunder beast, blowing on his nails and polishing them on his top.

Raiju sat back on his hind legs, rolling his eyes to one side, jerking his fury wolf brows high. He huffed through his fangs at his master's zany pretence of arrogance and histrionics.

"Ah, I guess that's what happens when you're an old fart and ready for retirement, eh boy? They fob the care-taker jobs on you!" Raiden guffawed to himself, stopping at the doorway of the clock tower.

Raiju whipped his tail back and forth at lightning speed, and nudged his head under Raiden's hand. He barked in delight. That is if you consider thunderous noise 'barking'. Raiju's cries were a cross between a bark and thundering, a _bark-undering_ noise. He _bark-undered_ in satisfaction as his eyes smouldered royal blue, savouring his master's rough scratch as Raiden's fingers buried themselves in the indigo streaks of the wolf's mane. Anyone hearing his yelps of contentment might have thought a thunderstorm was descending over the horizon.

"I know. I know, boy. This is the last point for the force field." Raiden ruffed Raiju's mane a little more.

Another _bark-undering_ came from Raiju's mouth in reply to his master's comment.

"I know. _We_ don't need the cardinal points identified, but the frogmen will need to know where to check for breaches once the field is up. _You've_ done your bit, boy. Go on, run along and burn something," Raiden beamed proudly at his lifelong companion, pushing Raiju's head away good-naturedly.

Raiju however, sat obediently at Raiden's sandaled feet, waiting to see if his master really meant he could dash off and play.

"Go on, you hairy mutt! Go play where you want, but just don't scratch the living shit out of everything you touch, _ne_? You're costing me a fortune in repairs to this place," Raiden scolded playfully. "I'm the God of Thunder and Lightning, not the God of Money!"

More _bark-undering_ and Raiju shot off with whoosh, morphing into a blue fireball, vanishing as he dashed over the dried up river, leaving a blackened, scorching, smoking trail behind him.

Raiden scratched the back of his head, shaking it while surveying more collateral damage by his wolf. Raiju was Raiden's best friend and loyal pet. A magical shape shifting thunder-animal who could transform into a cat, monkey, or bandicoot, but his favourite animal form, was of a snow-white wolf with navy blue streaks in his mane. Raiju the faithful wolf also doubled as a trusted scout and spy for Raiden, something like the James Bond of wolves. His favourite treat was dried curried ramen balls that Raiden carried with him in a pouch hanging from his sash, if he needed the wolf to be on his best behaviour.

The God of Thunder and Lighting grinned returning his attention to the last cardinal point, facing the Westerly direction. He knelt down on one knee and flattened his palm to a patch of dirt on the ground, closing his glowing white eyes in concentration, focusing the electricity coursing through his body into the span of his hand. A mellifluous rumble emanated from the surface under his palm, before a heated mist rose from the area surrounding the vast expanse of Raiden's hand. A luminous blue line suddenly lifted from the ground, darting from either side of Raiden's hand, shooting along the outer perimeter of the realm forming a circular boundary, from the forested area behind the tunnel to encompass the ocean plains behind the bathhouse. Within half a second the invisible perimeter was sealed in a complete circle, the blue line dissipating into thin air as Raiden pushed himself upwards.

"The _yunas_ are going to kill me for getting these stains on my white pants," he grimaced, letting out the breath he had held, noticing the green stains on his knee. _There is nothing worse than a nagging yuna! Woman and their laundry hang-ups!_

_Bro, you're the man._

The mocking voice came out of nowhere, snapping the God of Thunder and Lightning from his laundry dilemma. He blinked his lids erratically trying to discern the voice, scrunching his white brows into one line. He tightened his lips to a thin line, mentally cursing himself for not detecting the telepathic connection sooner.

_Heaven to Raiden. Is anyone home? _The voice was now more hallowed sounding, seeming to flow from nowhere. _You're getting slow, bro._

Raiden's taut mouth switched from a tight rope to a knowing smirk as he recognized the voice. "Bastard! Try calling when I'm not pumping my energy into the earth, Fujin."

_Big brother, still want those sais?_

Raiden threw his head back, his white ponytail whipping against his back in one liquid movement. He smacked a balled fist to his forehead and howled loudly in amusement, recalling how Haku's twelve hour tantrum had destroyed his magical sais. "Oh yes. I totally forgot about them, Fujin. Does Old Man Kuroi have any left?"

_I got the sales scroll right here man!_ _The new models coming out soon, it's only one hundred_ _and fifty years_ _away! 18 to 21½ inches_ _length, hexagon shaped shaft, with perpetual silk wrapped around the handle, and you get a choice of_ _chromium-plated or black anodized. I'm gonna get you the opposing tangs with two shafts. The S 2158! Comes with free delivery anywhere in the universe and a bonus gift is a sparring towel! Old man Kuroi is hard pressed for business these days, so he's got some bargains going on, dude!_

Raiden sighed at his brother's overzealousness, and in amazement at Fujin's bloodhound like nose for a good bargain. The God of Thunder and Lighting was practical, but his younger brother Fujin incessantly insisted on being the first _kami_, not just on the heavenly block, but in the universe to get everything that was hip and happening.

"Fujin, I just want a pair that will last me a few thousand years, _ne_? And I need it like, _n-o-w_."

_Don't you want to be first on earth block to get it?_

_I should have known that was coming!_ Raiden gritted to himself. Handling Fujin's raving was almost as dangerous as when women asked him, "Do I look fat in this?" Raiden slapped his flattened palms to the back of his neck, suppressing the urge to poke fun and wince at Fujin's usual shallow meanderings. Fujin wasn't only the God of Winds, but he was filled with a universe worth of hot air too.

_I'm a big brother. I need to be patient, _Raiden counselled himself, remaining silent, predicting the Fujin-esque lecture he knew was coming on.

_What God in his right mind needs a weapon?_

"Here we go!" Raiden whooped in exasperation throwing his arms up into the air dramatically.

_You keep babying those losers that call themselves 'spirits' and 'Gods' down there that you're starting to behave like them. The way I see it, any deity that needs to transform into an animal, or fight with a weapon is a total poser! LOSERS! Try hard wannabes,_ Fujin yelled mentally, in his egotistical drawl.

Raiden slumped his taunt backside down to the ground with a thud, his knees bent, propping his elbows on them. He was now thumping the heels of his palms to his forehead, barely controlling the compulsion to give his baby brother a verbal spanking.

"_Alright. Alright already._ Fujin. I'll wait for the _S 2158_, all right?" Raiden blew a raspberry from his lips like a child, releasing the tension of his washboard abdomen and crashed onto his back on the verdant grass. Amazingly, this simple movement caused a small earthquake rippling outward from his back, reverberating in underground waves, concentrically rippling through the meadow, sending the birds into the pure blue sky and little critters scurrying into their burrows.

_We, the kami that have an address in the Heavens, are the only true kami, Raiden. Those local country bumpkins should worship your every step, bro._

Raiden's attitude was more humble and understanding of the local _kami_ and spirits in the earth realm, while Fujin's was rather conceited, holier-than-thou and class-centric.

_Those amateurs! Real Gods aren't bound to one zip-code or one realm. Man, don't tell me they still reckon turning into crows or dragons is gonna bring the sexy back to our kind?_

Raiden roared in laughter, wondering how a crow could remotely look sexy. He hadn't realized the 'sexy' had gone from their kind in the first place. _I hope that the 'sex' never goes from our kind!_

"Fujin, it is our task to educate and guide the youngsters in the earth realm," Raiden enlightened Fujin for the zillionth time, as he moved clasping his hands behind his head, crossing his ankles swinging them back and forth. The perfumed fragrance of fresh grass, the piquant scent of the earth exhilarated him, a revitalizing respite from the putrid cologne of death and destruction he was too familiar with. Raiden's mercurial white eyes peered up into the sky wondering where Fujin's latest fashionable haunt was.

"You already know why I'm here. Ryujin was the perfect excuse to test out the realm earlier. His arrival was just an excuse to get me here in faster. Anyway, I was ordered to get rid of that crone who called herself Yu-baaba, remember?" Raiden reminded his brother.

_What about that baby gecko of yours?_

"_Gecko...?_ Oh, you mean _Haku_? Well, you see, the lad's been a bit… emotionally predisposed for a few years, so dragon-boy has a lot of cramming and homework to catch up on, before that eight headed mutant comes."

_Raiden. When that kid learns to shoot fire from his nostrils and leap Fujii-san in a single bound, blindfolded, with his legs hogged tied, then he might beep on my radar, okay? There's nothing worse than a benevolent earth-bound dragon, spurting out water like some common garden fountain! Man! You gotta whip his scaly ass into shape, bro! Whip it good! I can get the omni-lash just for that purpose if you like! Do you want it, ne, ne?_

Raiden chuckled mischievously, wondering if putting Haku over his knees and spanking the bee-jee-zus out of his protégé, could change the boy's inclinations for the young human lass from that morning.

""I'm hanging up dude! Good. Bye. Fujin." was Raiden's curt reply.

_Catch ya later, bro, _and Fujin hung up the mental telephone conversation.

Raiden stood and sauntered through the grassy trail staring intently at the bathhouse, pausing at the steps leading to the bridge. It had been a long day scouting the perimeter and he wasn't in the mood to go indoors quite yet.

"It's too nice an evening to go back into that steam house," he complained to no one in particular, settling onto the grassy knoll of the riverbank bobbing with pink snapdragons.

He made a conscientious effort to be gentle this time, not wanting to cause another baby earthquake. Striking a languid pose on a bed of grass, his contemplation continued as a soothing breeze brushed over his virile and handsome profile. Like his brother Fujin and other Gods who resided in the heavens, Raiden was not bound to one realm. He was free to wander between any supernatural realm and the human world as he wished, without any repercussions. For the moment however, he made it his mission to secure this specific realm, for the troubles he sensed were imminent.

He drew another breath through his mouth, positioning his head more comfortably over the clasped hands behind his head. Half of this realm was delimited by water, making a line of defense a strategic nightmare if that eight-headed monstrosity was to rear its ugly heads.

He held grave fears that _this_ realm could not withstand the attack. One of the five enchanted realms was already obliterated, much to Raiden's eternal anger and grief. He'd sworn not to sit idly by and watch another enchanted realm fall, adamant to prepare this location to preclude more senseless bloodshed and devastation; of _kami_ and spirits. Raiden as ordered, banished Yu-baaba from this realm with the expectation that Haku, as her apprentice, would step up to take charge. Instead, the boy had left, his long absence from the magical land sapping the spirit of some of his strength, the earth claiming the dragon's power as he addled at the waterway. Haku was one of the spirits Fujin regarded as a 'try hard wannabe', simply because he needed to derive power from his own realm and relied on this for survival- any displacement was harmful, like uprooting a reed from its home.

_I have to prepare that boy before it it's too late._ _At least now, I know why you left, Haku…you naughty boy!_ Raiden tittered privately.

He blew at the wisp of his fringe in contemplation, gazing as crimson and yellow streaks stole into the sky, as ultramarine horizon cerise bowed down with the setting sun. He looked like a perfectly normal human man lying just below the stone steps. Except for his blazing white eyes, ridiculously sublime physic, the electricity shooting through this body, the fact he could teleport anywhere, throw thunder balls from his hands, and oh, his ability to command thunder and lightning at will.

He discerned the trampling of grass long before they reached- shoes squishing on the moist earth. Hayate's figure appeared at the corner of Raiden's eyes, approaching from the direction of the clock tower. Raiden's iridescent orbs instantly filled with a common baby blue colour, and he peered quizzically to the man who stopped a few meters from his supine position, a friendly smile tugging at his lips.

"Excuse me sir, I'm looking for a girl. My fiancée. She's gone missing. Her name is Ogino. Ogino, Chihiro."

_Oh la lah! A love triangle! _Raiden commented to himself, propping himself up on one elbow. _This should be interesting. BOO YEAH!_

"Chihiro, did you say? A skinny young woman?" Raiden asked innocently, thinking it more judicious to omit Danger Dragon and all the funky stuff that would transpire if Hayate didn't hightail it out of the enchanted realm before the sun dropped from the sky.

Raiden had enough to contend with as it was. From the: protective dome of the realm; a heartsick dragon; the human girl Chihiro that he knew nothing about; the coming of Ryujin and his guests; his thunder wolf costing him a fortune in repairs, and now having to wait one hundred and fifty years for his new sais, just because his brother was a pretentious prick! He never imagined having to deal with a love triangle, circle, square or any emotional shape that was bound to go _pear_ shaped. He'd rather wage a ten thousand year war than deal with, of all things, a love triangle! _Why me?!_

"Well, my good man, what is your name?" Raiden asked, casually standing up to tower over Hayate like a skyscraper, his shrewd eyes darted pensively to the setting canvas of the horizon.

"_Mikado _Hayate." Hayate liked to emphasize his surname that was synonymous in Japan with wealth and power. It drew no reaction from Raiden however. "It's nice to meet you…?" Hayate offered his hand to Raiden.

"Of course. How rude of me. My name is Raiden…" _Shit! I don't have a last name!_ Alarm bells shrieked in Raiden's brain, after a short pause he offered "…_Smith_?" _Dang! That's not even Japanese!_ Raiden balked to himself. He then shook the hand Hayate offered, coming within an inch of breaking all twenty-seven bones in said hand in a paradoxical gesture of benign friendship.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Smith." Hayate replied, grimacing in an attempt not to collapse to his knees, at the handshake that bested the pressure of an industrial steel compactor. He wrangled his hand free as politely as possible, shaking the life back into it.

"If you don't mind, I need to find Chihiro. Her parents told me she was most likely here. I'm a bit worried because she is a bit _ditsy_. We had an argument… and the silly girl ran away." Hayate carped in a voice devoid of any worrying emotion. Rather his tone was seeped in annoyance sprinkled with inconvenience.

"Relax Hayate. May I call you Hayate? I know where she is. It's getting dark…," Raiden cooed lazily, realizing it was too late, to send the man back as the river began its rise from the clock tower banks. _Damn it! _

"Where is she?" Hayate spat impatiently, bending sideways to peer behind the broad width of Raiden's shoulders, at the steps leading over to the street of food stalls and restaurants.

_"Holy CRAPOLLA!_ Where's all this water coming from?" Hayate's face broke into sheer horror and disbelief thinking he had wet himself, dropping his gaze down to his pants. Low and behold, unnaturally icy cold water came from nowhere, rippling in an outward motion in delicate circles from his knees.

"My Gucci summer shoes! They're ruined!" Hayate roared pulling off one shoe from his foot in melodramatic despair. "Just the right shoe cost me sixty thousand yen!" he whined brandishing the soaked tanned leather sneaker below Raiden's square chin. "Is this some kind of flash flood?!" his voice shot like a bullet of hostility at Raiden, splashing in the water in a vain attempt to save his designer shoes.

"I believe she's visiting a sick friend." Raiden smiled nonchalantly masking his anxiety of exposing the spirit world to a human being, while his eyes scanned over the rising river around them. "And yes it's a... _flash flood_." He battled the temptation to grab hold of Hayate and teleport the man back to the earth realm, an act that was a dead give-away he wasn't _quite_ a normal man.

"Why don't we try and get you back to the tunnel, Hayate?" Raiden suggested as a last resort to stop Hayate from entering the realm at dusk. "I could do with a good swim and the temperature of the water is simply divine!" he said in a tone of an airhostess. _I can knock him out and make him think it was a dream on the other side, right?_

"No!" scowled Hayate arrogantly, sloshing his legs in the perceived flash flood that was now thigh deep. "I've come this far and I have to find Chihiro. What's up _there_?" he jutted his chin towards the street of restaurants. "Let me pass!" he demanded, rudely shoving Raiden aside, shouldering past the immortal _kami_ as he did so. "Damn freak flood! _Chihiro?!"_

Raiden unlocked his gaze from the distant clock tower cursing himself, feeling Hayate's head brush under his chin as the man snorted pass. A tiny flicker of lighting sizzled in his irises in irritation at the cumulating strife. He truly had no choice but to accommodate Hayate now, or else the man would just attempt entering the realm when the _kamikakushi_ force field was up; when it was deadly for both humans and spirits.

"You must be famished. Why don't we talk about it over something to eat, and I'll take you to her? _Ne_?" Raiden suggested graciously as the murky depths of water edged past their waist. This was the only recourse, but first off, it was critical to get some food into this man before he disappeared. If Hayate was going to freak out at the supernatural-rama that was about to smack him senseless in the face, Raiden wanted the man to be alive for it at least.

"I wouldn't want you to vanish into nothing by not feeding you," Raiden smiled through brilliantly white clenched teeth. "What kind of a host would I be then?" He chimed cracking his most disarming smile that threatened to shatter his face at the sheer exertion. _Foolish, pompous overpriced shoe wearing git!_

The setting sun bid a final farewell, sinking behind the indigo painted mountains, as the velvet canopy of night glimmered with stars above the bathhouse. Raiden's sharp eyes caught the glimpse of a serpentine silhouette shooting from the structure, as he and Hayate waded out of the river and up the steps making for the bathhouse.

_What have you gotten me into, Haku?_

_

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_**AN: **Nothing much to say but I got the update done!! lol. I'm going to the Studio Ghibli museum next week! CAN'T Wait! Anyhoo, love to hear any comments on this chapter that introduces u more to Raiden. My fav character of the fic. Again, not beta. I'm human but feel free to point out any boo boos I've made. :)

**60,000 Yen: **US590.425 est

**Fujiisan – **A term of endearment for Mt. Fujii

**Fujin **- Is Raiden's younger brother and Raiju is his pet dervish/thunder beast in Japanese mythology

**Kami ka kushi **- literally translated means hidden by the Gods (incase people don't already know)


	9. The Decisions IV Haku

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**9: The Decisions IV Haku**

It had been such a simple kiss. As natural as the rising of the moon and the setting of the sun; was their first kiss. Yet he had not realized the far-reaching implications of that innocent kiss until she had left. Their brief time together touched him like the softness of a rose petal that inexorably had the power to force him to his knees. She had woven a wicked spell upon him. As she had undoubtedly done with the human man he had seen her with.

For the past fifteen human years he lived at the surrogate river that was his lair, where he had spread the rumour that it was once named the Kohaku River East. Of course, it was not, but it was wish and tendency, as an elemental spirit to cultivate an understanding to humans, of the importance in identifying earth's elements as soulful entities - that the earth is not just a resource to squander. Now and then, he re-entered the enchanted realm to replenish his elemental force, before returning to his adopted river that was once the meeting point for both he and Chihiro when she was a child.

When Chihiro left for the human world with her parents and Yu-baaba's spell no longer bound him to the bathhouse, Haku chose to enter the human world despite the extinction of the original body of water where he reincarnated. Haku never suspected along with the other workers, that Yu-baaba herself was under an employment contract, until Raiden's sudden manifestation. To Haku, Raiden's appearance was a relief and perfect opportunity for him to escape. As an unlearned deity, he yearned to be free of responsibilities and commitments, similar to the mentalities of adolescent humans; and the bathhouse was definitely of _those_ obligations.

His short reprieve from the bathhouse ran over a decade and a half. Raiden explained his absence to the frog and slug spirits as 'unpaid long service leave' for all the years he devoted, running Yu-baaba's wayward errands; Until Chihiro had awoken his benevolence.

He had flown over the small town upon departure from the realm sensing Chihiro's _chi_ – life force- and was nicely surprised she was closer than he anticipated. A tiny waterway snaked at the knoll below her parents blue rendered house so he chose this brook as a home to watch over her. A few weeks after his move, destiny brought Chihiro wandering down to his waterway.

At first she sat by his shores complacent and weeping like the cherry blossoms did over his waters in autumn, dangling her skinny legs into the waters of the riverbank. The fiery inferno in her whiskey brown eyes diminished flame by flame to a flicker, before the fragile light extinguished leaving nothing but a tart abyss of darkness.

As the weeks drifted by she began to converse with no one in particular, about her parents disbelief of her so called 'grandiose fairy tales', and of her unwillingness to recant her stories that were indeed, fact and not fiction. He listened to her, feeling her crystal tears fall upon his surface like droplets of sorrow becoming one with him. He'd tasted the salty tears that became part of his elemental being.

She visited him daily for a few years, and he witnessed with admiration her child's body blossom into womanhood, as her recollections about him and the bathhouse faded with her childhood figure. Too many forlorn moments, he yearned to manifest himself, to console Chihiro, but he correctly surmised such an action served only to undermine her re-immersion to human life, and he longed only for her happiness.

Then one day, she didn't come to him. The days turned to weeks, into years and he knew not where she went. In time, the seasons and flowers faded. They had had their seasons, and so did his season with Chihiro, fade like the fruits of summer. Never had he felt so close to nature, water, earth and the inestimable sadness of life and its transience.

The treasured memories of her presence settled and swam through his veins as the flora and animals lived in his waters. She was a part of him. Her quiet appearances at the river played mischief on his heart, making it ring with alarm like a thousand glass bells. He was ever more fearful the fish, turtles, frogs, and ducks sharing his river could eavesdrop on his liquid emotions permeating within the waters. At times, he thought he was quite ill or dying as a repercussion of his absence from the supernatural realm. Fifteen years later, he realized what those symptoms heralded and what heart threatening sickness afflicted him.

His only recollection of time started in the human world from the second he'd saved her as mere babe. Ending the moment when Chihiro left him behind in the enchanted realm, and once again when she left his surrogate river.

_How else could you have remembered her name when she came to the bathhouse and not your own?_

xXx

He plunged head first into the shaft of the floor in his study, soaring in a downward spiral in human form to Kamajii's basement, after finding the unsigned contract that slay his heart to a bloody mess, to within a thread of his immortal life. He never imagined a simple parchment in her hands had the power to maim him so.

The bitter winds lashed at his face ravaged with anger, his nails puncturing welts into his palms. His human body was sleek slicing through the darkness and his clothes flapped rapidly, streamlined with the velocity of his descent. His eyes tapered, unable to blink in the shadows as he descended deeper into the shaft lined with ancient red earthen bricks. A chaotic race of emotions of outrage, fear and grief laced his blood like splinters of glass. Vengeance's voice spoke the clearest, intent on punishing Rin for allowing Chihiro to leave the realm. The black void of the shaft mirrored the hollow of his chest.

_You belong to me._ His hair flayed along his back, his breath was ragged. _No matter where you go._

"You're useless!" his self-deprecating howl echoed in the shaft behind him.

A small dot of orange light expanded from a pinprick into the rounded opening of Kamajii's boiler room. The boiler room ironically, came to represent the cold fire left to him in the wake of her departure. Haku curbed his speed, halting to float at the end of the shaft letting his feet descend through the bottom of the opening first, landing soundlessly as a feather on the wood panelled floor. Pungent scents of burning charcoal, mingled with exotic scents of jasmine, mint leaves, pinecones and the wisps of smoke twisted around him, attempting to bathe him in calm.

The fire in the furnace crackled and Haku heard the coal crumbling between the metal cogs as the soot balls worked their beeline.

"Eeep eep eep!" chirped the soot balls at Haku as he landed.

His breath was thin and his chest heaved rapidly. The high temperature of the room couldn't rival the volcanic magma coursing through Haku's veins, nor melt the stony continence of his face. Ignoring the soot balls he turned to Kamajii who was in the midst of grinding herbs for guests' tokens in his stone mortar and pestle.

The spider spirit had his back to Haku. He left two of his arms to grind and swivelled his baldhead to observe the lividly glacial young dragon. The old man narrowed his eyes detecting what was clearly vexing the boy. It was as transparent as the waters surrounding the bathhouse.

"Haku. Is something wrong?" Kamajii asked in a very placating tone.

"_Rin,"_ Haku scowled, the strain visible in his jaw trailing to the chorded muscles in his neck. He slid the gaze of his lightless eyes to the soot balls.

"Was _she_ the one responsible for shaking the walls of the bathhouse?" Kamajii joked knowing full well, the answer to his own question. The wise old man, unlike other spirits and _kami,_ appreciated the full range of uncontrollable sentiments that humans and inexperienced young spirits, like Haku, were capable of wielding. It made _kami_ and spirits a little more human.

His beady eyes hidden behind his black spectacles followed Haku as he stood at the edge of the raised flooring. The water spirit's body was unyielding, hardened with the pent up force of embroiled bitterness and loss. Haku's refined profile froze in place, his lips chorded like a tight rope. His lids framed thick with curled dark lashes lowered as he sightlessly surveyed the soot balls scurrying back and forth on the dirt floor. Even the shadow Haku cast against the wooden drawers on the wall was more alive than his crestfallen human form.

"Chihiro has certainly blossomed into a lovely young woman hasn't she, _ne_?" Kamajii persisted intending to steer Haku's next action.

Haku exhaled sharply as Kamajii continued. "She's as sweet as she ever was…kind and caring that she decided she _couldn't_ go back to her world without visiting the ailing Zeniiba…,_"_ Kamajii finished.

Haku's eyes remained fixed on the soot balls, knitting his brows. "Then she's… _gone_?" his whirling emotions hidden under his hooded eyes, incapable of hearing what Kamajii insinuated. "Did…" Haku started and stopped to a dead silence blinking erratically… _she __say anything about me?_

"I think she should still be there if you_ hurry_…" Kamajii hinted sympathetically, articulating each word at a snail's pace, speaking cogently to the stupefied water spirit, as if he was talking to someone quite loopy.

A palpable silence congested the boiler room until Haku's eyes sprung open in revelation and he shot up into the shaft like a hell-bent whirlwind. Haku couldn't comprehend why he was pursuing Chihiro, but his head no longer compelled him. As he soared into the rising night sky, he recognized that it wasn't that wretched _Rin_ his injured pride, and something _else_ demanded redemption from.

"Eep eep epp!" the soot balls squealed in delight as the vortex of wind sucked them into the shaft after Haku, only to drop back down to the boiler room in a rain of black puffy snowflakes.

"Get back to work you lazy soot balls!" Kamajii clipped vociferously to his army of black cotton-like balls. "Sometimes the truth is hard to see when it's right in front of you, isn't it Haku, my boy?" he giggled knowing after Haku.

xXx

They had administered the herbal rub of basil, black pepper, pine and peppermint to Zeniiba's leathery parched skin to help stay the pain due to the witch's deteriorating muscles. The good witch was physically decaying from the inside out, as penance for her twin sister's current activities in the human realm.

Kao Nashi stood bent over the red brick oven brewing a Ginger Routine of powdered midnight ginger that grew only in the enchanted forest, brown sugar, and soy powder ground from the beans growing in their garden patch. It was a recipe Kao Nashi, the benign demon, created especially for Zeniiba and her ailing appetite. Liquids were the only meals the Lady of the house was able to keep down. She was to sip on the Ginger Routine for nine days. 1/2 bowl for breakfast. 1 1/2 bowls for lunch and two bowls for dinner. If fables were anything to go by, then the magical properties of midnight ginger would heighten her appetite to help the witch stave off the deterioration in her body.

His wooden ladle clanked lightly on the bottom of the earthen pot to stir the congee texture of the simmering egg white soup. He stared languidly at Chihiro sitting on Zeniiba's bedside, surprised at her 'new appearance' because the last time he had seen her, was when she was a child. Kao Nashi having led a sheltered life within the realm, did not understand that humans aged rapidly. There were unusual bumps on different parts of her body he was intrigued about and wanted to inspect when he had more free time.

The modest thatched roof cottage had stood still in time since Chihiro last left the hidden forest all those years ago. The wooden spindle and loom remained tucked away in the back corner of the cottage next to bushels of dried flowers and yarn. The red and white gingham curtains hung with care covering the green painted French windows, the old country style dining table and benches sat in the middle of the living area. Tapestries adorned the golden peachy walls, strewn with upturned drying bouquets. The crispy fragrance of pine forest lingered within the home. The old-world and welcoming charm of the abode was warm and inviting as a heated comfy bed on a winter's night. All was warm and well except for Zeniiba, who had been bedridden for the past few months.

The witch's every laboured breath wreaked of the rotting flesh inside her. Her bulbous eyes opaque with a grey haze and she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her once lustrous glimmering hair lay limp and grey, splayed on the pillows. For the past hour Chihiro had wept relentlessly while assisting Rin with the herbal remedies from Kamajii. She wondered if Zeniiba even knew she was there as she continued clutching desperately to the good witch's clammy hands.

"Granny, do you remember me? Chihiro? I returned your gold seal and you had Bo and Yu-bird spin that glittery hair band for me…," Chirhiro asked her tone low and frightened, squeezing the witch's hands harder hoping for a physical response. She used the hair band to tie the straps of her tote bag together, the very tote bag hanging from her back. The hair band from Zeniiba, was the solitary proof Chihiro had her encounter here wasn't a figment of her imagination.

"_Isn't there anything we can do to help?"_ Chihiro rasped repeatedly to Rin, looking grievously at Zeniiba. The witch had not uttered a syllable since their arrival, but had managed a feeble and welcoming smile on their arrival.

"Only if we can stop Yubaaba, Chihiro," Rin's face was glum, her voice filled with scorn at the thought of the wretched witch. Finding her was an act of futility as the former bathhouse administrator had departed to an unknown location since her exile. Kao Nashi had failed to locate Yubaaba on his recent quest, before he returned with urgency to nurse his friend and Lady of the cottage. Bo and the Yu-Bird were presently scouting across Japan for her as Rin spoke. Haku's absence rendered him useless and Raiden-sama was the elder responsible for vanquishing the realm of Yubaaba. Rin inhaled a sigh of resignation, at what she foresaw, was a hopeless scenario for Zeniiba.

A hushed roar of wind crept over the horizon and the sombre peace of the cottage shattered. The sparkling glass panes of the windows shook into frantic tremors as if terrified by the approach of an unwanted visitor. Chihiro startled, falling off the bed with a thump in agreement.

"_JEEZ! Is-is this a hurricane of something?"_ Chihiro asked rubbing her rump, as the windows stilled, the supposedly hurricane suddenly gone.

"If I had to _guess_…," Rin drawled grinning with anticipation, struggling to pierce her sight through the windows near the entry door. "I'd say it's a hurricane all right, a pissed off hurricane on four legs, kiddo." Rin chuckled knowingly. "_May Buddha be with you when the IT comes through the door_."

"Uh, Uh!" Kao Nashi grunted propping the ladle over the rim of his earthen pot, skimming over the polished wooden floor to the door.

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A review would be lovely. If not, oh well. :)

**AN: **In case anyone is wondering, I've used the Japanese spelling of Kamajii, Zeniiba and Yu-baaba - hence the double 'ii' and 'aa'.


	10. Dragon Wrath

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**10: ****Dragon Wrath**

"What?"Chihiro's whispered in shock, walking hesitantly to the window. Her eyes strained to see through the darkness beyond the windows. _"__I__t's Haku?" _she questioned, unable to believe her own words. She edged to the window, unsure of what or how to feel at his arrival. He's distinctive, elegant silhouette floated with the grace of a leopard towards to the door. His hair tied high on his head swayed as a fluid extension of his movements. His ethereal allure was undeniable.

Chihiro dropped her gaze to her feet, confused, hunting for what was an appropriate emotion to feel for his arrival. All she would think of was searching for a dignified path to escape from facing him…possibly a hole or crack to dive into. _Why am I this frightened to see him again?_

She returned her attention to the striking wrathful spectacle that was Haku, her heart sighing. She squinted through the darkness, watching as the golden lamp light of the front entrance illuminated his face from the sheen of his black green fringe, down to the subtle tip of his chin. _Why is he here?_ The humiliation of having to confront him again, bottomed out her stomach.

In stark contrast to Chihiro, Kao Nashi hovered over to the door, black stick arms opening the door to greet his visitor. Zeniiba had taught him to be an amiable host to all friendly spirits over the past decade. It was his privilege to welcome Haku to his adopted home.

Rin whistled on the daybed in the far corner of the room, staring at Chihiro readying herself for a bit of entertainment. "Why so jittery, Chihiro?" She prodded verbally with a churlish smirk.

Chihiro stood rooted to the ground, anchored down by the weight of her emotional maelstrom. Her eyes nailed to the opening door. Her pulse hammered in her throat in morbid anticipation. Her heart beat faltered, as the wooden door creaked open, the outside darkness spilling into the lit cottage.

The humming of the insects surrounding the cottage drifted in, followed by Haku's rush thong foot stepping into the doorway. The rest of his lithe body emerged swathed by the golden glow of the cottage. His creaseless cerise pants and grey _musashi_ top, unnaturally pristine as always.

Chihiro bit down, unconsciously wincing at the staunch glint in Haku's almond shaped eyes.

Rin unabashedly giggled with sadistic pleasure from her vantage point, rubbing her palms together with zeal at the spectacle.

Deep shadows hardened Haku's feature. He gave a curt nod to Kao Nashi. The porcelain fine skin of his face was taut. His dispassionate expression concealed the battle that consumed him since Chihiro's return. His entire elemental life force focused on the presence of the human woman. They had saved each other, a life debt repaid. He should have been noble, benevolent willed to set her free to continue on her path in life. Inauspiciously for Haku, his mind had been defeated in the internal war over his emotions. He resolved to expose himself to her tonight… expose his _feelings_ that was. Heedless of what karma, destiny dictated.

Kao Nashi deduced that clearly, the water spirit was uninterested in small talk tonight. He closed the door behind Haku, drifting back to the stone oven to resume stirring his Ginger Routine. The good Witch, Zeniiba as was her custom of late, surrendered into a stupor of sleep, untouched by the drama unravelling before her.

Chihiro held her shaky ground against Haku's Herculean stance, the breadth of his shoulders rigid as the light smile on his lips. _It wasn't as if I had wronged him in any__way__._ She justified balefully to herself.

"Haku, you do _realize_ Zeniiba is sick don't you? I'd appreciate a little delicacy, _quiet_ and manners if you wish to visit here," she jabbed with authority in her role of nurse maid for Zeniiba.

Kao Nashi serenely stirred his Ginger Routine, the sound of his wooden ladle and the fireplace the only conversation audible in the room. Through his transparent draped black body, he inhaled deeply, savouring the flavourful and crisp aroma wafting from his gastronomic masterpiece. It was times like these he wished he possessed a human nose to whiff, and a human brain to comprehend the psychological war fare raging between Haku and Chihiro.

"W-Why are you here, Haku?" Chihiro said threadbare, strained.

"I request the pleasure of your company tonight, Chihiro. We have much to discuss," Haku said in a silken tone, controlled diplomacy and yet, forbade contradiction. He extended his open hand to her as he had on the first night they had re-entered each other's lives at the river. "Come with me." He would speak to her, whether she accepted his veiled apology or not.

The intimacy of being alone with Haku, exhilarated and repelled Chihiro. _I am to marry, Hayate__. _She recited her fiancés name repeatedly, using Hayate's name as a precept of Buddha's teaching. "_Ha-ya-te__,_" Chihiro mumbled frantically under her breath. Her sense of duty reared, closely followed by the resentment of Haku's earlier actions. "My apologies Haku, but I have every intention to go home. I have no intention or the time to speak with you about anything," she surprised herself with the sanguine eloquence of her hurtful words.

"Come with me, now, Chihiro," Haku commanded coolly.

Her blood boiled at his presumptuous arrogance she would simply comply with him. She was no longer a worker in the bathhouse. All, if any authority he had over her then, ceased to exist in the present scheme of her life. "I'm not a bathhouse worker at your disposal, Haku." She wasn't going anywhere with him. Her only destination was to Hayate. The train would soon arrive. She didn't need his help to get home or for anything else for that matter. She would return home to her pedestrian life, marry Hayate and be done with her life, her commitments, her duty as a daughter and engaged woman.

"Chihiro, I insist on the pleasure of your company this evening, we have much to discuss," Haku hedged, broadening his smile.

"_My ass!"_ Chihiro snapped with indignation.

"If you wish we can discuss _that_ too, although I must see it first to truly comment," Haku retorted dryly, his face a cold oriental alabaster. Why was she flagrantly taunting him, whispering the humanman's name in his presence? Haku relaxed his hands between the folds of his _hakama_ pants, allowing his bruised and naked emotions to slip from them. The bane would not win over him this evening.

"Er… Haku. Could Chihiro take the next flight out on Dragon Airlines instead, _ne_?" Rin suggested with cheek, her bewildered gaze running between the two. The screwy human girl was chanting her human man's name like a prayer, inadvertently provoking a livid _kami__, _who in turn pretended to be placid pond, watched on.

"_Why are you here?"_ Chihiro persisted, her voice raw and pained. "I intend to go home, to my world. I want to be where I belong. I refuse to sign away my life and world to this place. To sign a worthless contract that holds little meaning …" Chihiro declared stoically. "My life is outside, in _my_ world, with _my_ parents. With…" Chihiro dropped off, incapable of vocalizing Hayate's name in Haku's presence. It was her justification to escape from the quick sand of emotions pulling her down, despite her fight to extricate herself.

She tore her eyes welled with remorse from Haku's distant, steely countenance. _What was I hoping for that night__? Hope is a poor excuse for those who fail to accept reality. _The familiar voice of melancholy that stemmed from Chihiro bitter experiences in life comforted her, shielding her from further pain.

Haku's eyes sparked with a blithe light, marking the beginnings of an Emerald Spirit verging on a Crimson Spirit. He strode with menace to Chihiro, an apex predator set on his cornered victim. She would listen to him, no matter the consequence.

"_What are you doing?__"_ Chihiro cried, riled by Haku's prolonged and dour quiet. "Why don't you say something? What did you come here for? Why can't you just leave me be?" Chihiro force out the recrimination, a deep crack webbed over her chest as she heard her self-ruminations.

Chihiro retreated towards Rin. Her eyes shrunk to a needlepoint fierce and frightened. The colour drained from her face at Haku's serpentine advance. The room seemed to fall away into a black void, leaving naught but Haku's omnipresence. Each step he took was a potent proclamation of reckoning.

"Look Haku, if you want the girl to be a frequent flyer you'd better work on your customer service," Rin shoved her two arms out in front, flattening her palms against Haku's hardened forearms. "Don't you get it? The girl doesn't want y-o-uuu-_oooohhh…_," Rin joke fell short, seeing the rage breaking over Haku's face that until this moment, held a vestige of civility.

"I think you meant to say, Hayate," Haku finished acerbically, phasing right through Rin to grab at Chihiro's elbows with an un-ceremonial jerk right through the _yuna_.

Chihiro's sucked in her breath feeling the might in Haku's fingers bite into her arm. She whipped her head back to Rin in a desperate plea for help.

The _yuna_ nonchalantly, threw her arms up in the air in resignation and waved goodbye. She shot another wicked smile to her friend, before she perfunctorily sat back down to tend to Zeniiba. "Ignore the two kids," she drawled to Kao Nashi who obeyed her directions implicitly, staring into the pot of his simmering Ginger Routine.

As sure as the sun would rise, Chihiro would reduce Haku to a pathetic puddle of magical yearning, once when they were alone, the _yuna _predicated with unwavering confidence. "I don't know who's in more danger though, Zeniiba or the Dragon Face," she muttered, scratching the back of her head, dabbing the beaded sweat from Zeniiba's forehead with her sleeves. "Now Zeniiba, how about some dinner, _ne_?"

xXx

Haku led a resistant Chihiro behind him, past the daybed, passing the dining table and towards the cottage door.

"Very well, Chihiro. My contract means nothing to you? You wish to go home. To your family. To your world. To your human man, Hayate?" his cutting articulation of Chihiro's declaration, struck her down with silence. "Then it will be my pleasure to escort you back there."

Haku led Chihiro's frail body to the door, briefly pausing to give a curt parting nod to Zeniiba and Kao Nashi. He ushered the door open magically before his wake. The calm that was preceding Haku's storm, was as with all of nature's glory, eerily tranquil. His unlearned patience and tender disposition superseded his grand chivalrous intentions.

"_Haku__? _ What are you talkingabout? What are you doing?" Chihiro staggered after him, battling to free herself from his blood-constricting hold. He was a few paces ahead of her, a wall of attrition and acrimony. _His contract?_

Haku hauled Chihiro through the front door and into the mournful night. The door creaked shut after them.

Chihiro lumbered after him. Her eyes fixed on his corded white hands, up his grey clad arms past his shoulders, his hair whipping wildly. _This isn't happening… what's wrong with him?_ She cried to herself. "You didn't even let me say goodbye!" She screamed in chagrin.

The final dregs of the cottage lights melted into the indigo night as Haku dragged Chihiro under the wooden entry gate. The magical lamp hanging from the gate judiciously, withheld its customary salutations for another occasion when his guest was in a milder temperament.

They surged through the blackened forest night. Chihiro caught sight of the pale the lily fronds on the lake on either side of the road, wishing she were one of the reeds blissfully ignorant on the shores, unaffected from her destination to Haku's purgatory. _Everything_ around her was meditative, blessed with un-mindful peace. She stumbled along the dirt road, a powdery mist of white sand ballooning in their wake.

"Haku! _Stop it!"_ Chihiro shouted, loosing the struggle to break free from Haku's iron grip. "Haku you're hurting me! _Please!_" She pleaded, in denial of the raging spirit before her.

Instead, Haku's fingers dug deeper into Chihiro's slender arm, his savage emotions blindfolded him to the consequences of his actions. Hapless, Chihiro observed in dismay, trying to delve behind Haku's marbled exterior. The moonlight etched the hard white line of his mouth and strained tension of his jaw. The veins on either side of his temple throbbed visibly and his teeth clenched so tightly, she was sure his face would crack at the merest breeze.

A macabre realization struck Chihiro down like one of Raiden's thunderbolts, of Haku's true nature and what power he wielded in furor or otherwise. How could someone whom she'd imagined of heartbreaking feats of kindness transcend to this? In her youthful dreams and slumber, he had been a splendid dragon in pearled white armour, noble and honourable, not the shell of a person who had first met her as a child at the bathhouse, not the man who confronted her now.

Chihiro darted her eyes side-to-side searching for cover, planning to break away from his moving frenzy. There was nothing except unforgiving blue darkness, dewy mist rising from the waters and the mossy blanket of grass framing the road. The path began to wind fatalistically farther from Rin, Zeniiba, Kao Nashi and her once safe retreat from Haku. The trees topped with heavy clouds of green foliage lined the dirt road like guards, reached for the skies; standing at attention in parade alongside the path Haku and Chihiro 'strolled' along. They were children of nature, Haku's personal army, positioned like a great wall barricading her escape.

_All I did was leave… it was what you wanted, wasn't it?_Chihiro's hope started to wan with her strength.

"Let go of me Haku! _I don't deserve to be treated like this!" _Chihiro shrieked clawing at his hand in humiliation.

Haku's soundless strides elevated and the winds lashed through the thin cotton tunic to Chihiro's skin. The ground fell away with sudden velocity from her feet. Chihiro flailed in the cloudless blanket of the sky, a powerless human out of her earthly depths. She frantically clutched both hands to Haku's wrist realizing she was airborne. The shimmering scaled Chihiro expected to spring from the nape of his neck, marking his transformation to a dragon, never surfaced. Haku remained in human form.

She clung to his chorded forearm kicking her legs frenetically in the frigid thickening air, swallowing her insignificant form. Unwisely, Chihiro dropped her panicked gaze down past her dangling feet to discern how far they had risen. The cottage shrunk into a speckle. The parade of towering trees shrivelled to tiny sprigs of coriander, and the vast shimmering lake undulated in small black satin sheet.

"_HAKU!" _she screamed hanging on for dear life clawing at his sleeve, grasping at his icy hand. She snapped her eyes from the shrinking tableau below her bare feet, her _geta _– wooden thongs- fell to into the night. "_Please don't __do this,__ Haku_… I'm sorry I didn't go to the tunnel as you instructed…" Chihiro heard herself apologizing. She craned her face up to him, fervently hopingto find the tender light that once illuminated his jade green eyes. To find the man who had once protected and saved her life.

"_I'm sorry I didn't go to the tunnel__ as you wanted__…_" She rasped through fitful breaths. The energy bled from her weakened tone. She stared at the impenetrable set of Haku's darkling eyes, his head haloed under the dusty moonlight. The cold tendrils of the beryl sky coiled tighter around her body, began to coax her from his hand. The air began to thin, starving her lungs of precious oxygen.

Chihiro tasted the salty hot streaks trickling into her trembling lips. Her eyes bore gravely up to Haku, wishing the humanity she knew dwelled in him, as a boy, would resurface. Her frigid, chilled fingers tore through Haku's sleeve. The glacial wisps of air nipped over her bare skin. She would save herself, despite Haku's intentions to the contrary. She didn't want to pass into the next world, not yet. She didn't want to pass into the next world. Not like this. Her life had not been beautiful or full…and it seemed, her end was not destined to be so either.

Haku's face was set in stone focusing on the too azure canopy of the nightscape in front of him. Chihiro watched him in mute, sorrowed disbelief. Her fingers aching frozen fingers were sweaty from her frantic battle to hold onto Haku's hand. She was certain, her magnificent elemental spirit meant to release his grip, to drop her to the earth, as punishment for not returning to the human world as he had directed. Her vision reeled, the colours of the stars and sky around Haku's silhouette wrong and fading. She allowed her lids to drop close like she pictured her body would plummet to the earth if Haku choose to let her go.

* * *

**AN:** Have a great day folks and hope you liked the chapter. Sorry I'm not updating as fast as I would but life and work is killing me. As I stated at the very beginning I'm making slight edits to the original voice of this story. Most people on this fandom have read – so no sweat. Love any feed as per usual. :) Ecki thank you ROCK! :)


	11. Red Tears

**AN:** Warning! I do not have a beta for this fic - I'll have to beg my beta for my other fic to take on this one too I think. lol I apologise in advance for any silly boo boos you might find in this chapter (MS Word can only check so much spelling and grammar). Please feel free to point them out. :D I apologise for being human and not being able to pick up mistakes having stared at this chapter a gazzillion times.

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**11: Red Tears  
**

The blustery gust of night sky always had a calming effect on Haku and nothing was different this evening. As he ascended further from the shackles of his earthly ties, a weight lifted from his shoulders, though the one insurmountable affliction anchoring his spirit, remained. He should never have fallen into such frenzy at the notion of anything, or anyone. As a deity governed by water, his emotions had to flow with the transient nature of his element. Nothing should have welled or infected his veins. However, as his mentor often elucidated, he was still a tender reed that bent to the whims of emotional currents.

He should have accepted Chihiro drifting away with the tides of times, the waves of karma: as she had done the first time as a child, leaving the realm with her family. Then, he had acceded to the whims of destiny, for her safety. The second time she had vanished from his river, as a blossoming young woman. Again, he'd allowed nature to take its course, that led Chihiro on a path away from him. Nonetheless, no matter the twists of Chihiro's road in life, their paths inevitably, intertwined. It was because of this, Haku determined, rheir third parting, when she would leave him, had to be a charm.

"Haku…please don't do this," Chihiro's tender words, without a hint of condemnation, broke his trance. He awoke from himself and allowed himself to look downwards. An incandescent light, signaling the pain in Chihiro's eyes, called to him through the darkness.

"_Haku… please,'_" Chihiro forced out, barely able to breathe in the shallow air, her eyes weary with resignation. Her shivering blue lips had all but frozen from the blistery cold of the altitude he had flown.

He was witnessing the aftermath of his cruel and impassioned, latent nature. The dangerous undertow within him, bound his better nature. In one deft movement, Haku lifted Chihiro into his arms, one arm under supporting her back, and the other under her legs hugging her tight to him. Tremors assaulted her rigid body. Her delirium of agony was his. He would hold her, and everything would be right. He pressed heated body to hers. It was only then, a malicious red wink of light, on his wrist sparkled with fury. _Chihiro's blood?_ He asked himself. The iridescent red shimmer ran from his wrist, continued in an overlapping pattern and disappeared underneath his sleeve: arcs of crimson undulating against the reflection of moon light. They were scales. Vindictive red scales, scales from Prince Akai's lineage; the residual bane of Ryujin's blessing upon Haku.

He narrowed his eyes, alarmed to see the veracity of the red scales glistening gloriously at him: the reality of his lurking nature manifesting itself. The surge of red was his upheaval. The red was the dormant, virulent seed of emotions that stubbornly, grew within. It struck at the helpless girl that lay motionless in his arms. He was straying to the red, straying from the wisdom of his min and yielding to earthly emotions.

"Forgive me, my_ suiren," _Haku whispered with apologetic solace into her hair, watching her breath clouding white in the wintry night air. "You deserve more than this." The one comfort, the single affection Haku could give freely to Chihiro, was rising his body temperature, easing the chill from her flesh. Her fitful breathes slowed, her breathing deepened into a steady rhythm in the thin air.

oOo

Time passed and the moon rose at its peak in the velvet black sky. There would still be time, as the realm wouldn't have yet sealed. Haku sailed graceful, through the heavens guided by Fujin's winds, to expedite his precious package to where her heart longed to be.

Chihiro had fallen into blissful languor, blanketed in the warmth of Haku's arms. The vision of her dulcet face stripped Haku's defenses bare: the gentle curves of her lips and the soft arch of her brows. The kindly expression on her sleeping visage tempered the enmity, the prophetic tides that eddied in him, placating the red that rippled. The crimson scales receded one by one, slipping seamlessly under his alabaster skin. He dipped his face down, pressing his cheek on Chihiro's forehead, closing his eyes to dream of what could, but would never come to fruition. When he opened his eyes, an immense lake appeared, rolling between the sandstone steps and the clock tower. The sapphire satin sheets of water sailed over the horizon. The last ferry bobbed at the shores. The lanterns flickered in blushes of aureate, in a procession along the quay. There, Chihiro would leave him, the way she came to him. There was only one path to her sanctuary, that was a path to her human man. Only misfortune awaited her in this enchanted world. They were children of earth born into two seasons. She was his hope, his budding Spring eternal. He was her Autumn, a season and reason that led nature into an eternal/undying sleep, never to wake. It was simply not their time.

Haku set down, walking on the waters towards the bank of the clock tower. On the shore partly shadowed by the structure, he uttered her name like a dying wish, torn by the need to wake Chihiro up, and the wanting of her to stay as she was in his arms. "It is time, my sleeping _suiren_," he lulled Chihiro from her slumber, tracing his lips along the hollow of her cheeks, lingering longer than required over the shell of her ear as he did so. He felt a burst of fire shoot through his body, as Chihiro snuggled tighter into his chest, clutching at the opening of his robes. "Haku," she mumbled contently, oblivious to where she was. His eyes twinkled with flashes of mischief, entranced by his own name for a few human moments, before he broke from his private illusions, back to the burden of reality, of why he had left her to this destination. "Chihiro," he rocked her gently in his arms jutting his chest forward to propel her cheek from his body.

She stirred, twitching her nose, fluttering her eyelids open. She stretched her arms out in a languid yawn, surprised to find herself against a coarse silk covered surface. Her hands groped and flattened along the warm surface. She crept her fingers to grab chorded arms. _"OH!?"_ Chihiro eyes shot open, rudely aware of how, who held her and why. "_OH. _Oh!?_"_ She screeched, the sheepishness painting a healthy apple red over every inch of her body. She craned her head upwards to see Haku's marbled face peering down at her, haloed by the misted sky. "_Haku!" _she blurted out in humiliation topped with an exhilarating coat of jubilance, as she struggled free of his hold.

Haku set her onto her feet, wishing it had taken just a little longer for her to wake.

"I-I'm sorry," Chihiro stammered, spinning around disorientated, to survey where she was. What a predicament to discover she was trapped between the lake and a very handsome and hard place! His proximity dazed her, along with the hot flashes of the events at Zeniiba's cottage and the proceeding events. "How... how did I get here?" Her temporary amnesia lasted but a moment, followed by the agonized recollections of how she'd imagined Haku would drop her to her next life. She clutched her fists to her chest, tangled in a web of confusion, hurt and fatigue."H-Haku...," She started with uncertainty, turning to face her would be slayer and savior.

"Do not worry, Chihiro," he smiled a heartbreaking masterpiece of a smile that did not reach his eyes. "You should be in time to return to your world…" Haku interjected with smooth lilt, his voice humble and true. He drew a deep breath, and soldiered on, "Hayate will be waiting for you." At last, he managed to enunciate the name_,_ without a hint of blasphemy. He adjusted his stance and angled his body in the direction of the clock tower, opening a path for Chihiro. He bowed slight, and gestured with one arm for her to take leave. "The tunnel is through the clock tower." He stepped aside, beckoning Chihiro to move past him.

Chihiro cast her frightened eyes to the blackened archway, darting a glance back to Haku, then dropped her gaze her feet, lost in the pitch-dark forest of her mind. Mechanically, her legs moved, setting one foot in front of the other. She was committed to Hayate, she reminded herself sternly. _I am betrothed. I am committed, _she chanted to herself. It was her duty to honor her commitment, to uphold the honor of her parents' name, not to cause them shame. "Haku, I-I'm very sorry for the inconvenience I've caused you…," Chihiro paused, to deliver the obligatory parting phrase. As hard as she focused her sights into the tunnel, she could see no light at the end of it, and she knew, that is was not due to the unsettling darkness of the night. Her fortitude to return to the Hayate, her parents, was dissipating with every moment Haku was near.

The curtain of separation began to fall between them.

"_Go."_ Haku whipped his eyes in anger to the waters, snarling to himself. He loathed his own weakness, detested the fact that Chihiro's mere presence inevitably, eroded all barriers he erected. He fixed his blue gaze to the heavens, and held his erect shoulders wider. _You need to leave me, my suiren. It's for your own good_. "It will be too late if you do not go now."

Chihiro chewed on her lower lip. It was what she had anticipated he would say, but not what she yearned to hear. "Haku…" she rasped, yearning he would complete her unspoken words. _Ask me to stay,_ she prayed silently to herself. As hard as she tried, Chihiro was unable to move, secretly pining to cherish a few seconds longer in her fool's paradise, if but to steal extended final precious moments by Haku's side.

Nothing, Haku's response, or lack of, said all she needed to hear. _He doesn't want to speak of it,_ Chihiro acquiesced. She began her journey back to her human life, towards the clock tower. She took a parting glance over her shoulder to Haku, who stared not at her, but to the skies above him. It was that exact instant, she felt a definite crack in her chest.

It was all Haku could do to restrain himself from imprisoning Chihiro in his arms, and begging Chihiro to remain by his side. "_Go._" Haku sneered, drenching antipathy into every syllable to push her away, before his lost himself. "GO NOW AND DON'T LOOK BACK. DON'T COME BACK!"

The misery that stung in Chihiro's eyes froze, stunned by the venom of his demand. She began shaking uncontrollably anger pumping loud in her skull. "Fine!" She snapped, and bolted to the clock tower. Adrenaline fuelled her limbs, instinctively delivering her away from danger, disregarding the rocky terrain. As she ran over the uneven path, the rocks rolled under her feet, toppling Chihiro with a heavy thud onto her knees. Her palms took the brunt of the fall. The breath knocked out of her.

Haku grabbed Chihiro by the waist, pulling her to her feet, only to abruptly shove her away, such was his longing to hold her to him. Her body scorched his hands such was his yearning not to let her go. Chihiro's owl like eyes implored to him. He hissed, and clamped his eyes at the wicked sight that was softly killing him. He clenched both fists to his forehead, in a final bid not to hinder Chihiro from departing his world.

"_GO!"_ he spat, the chords of his neck throbbing. He couldn't and wouldn't watch her go.

Chihiro mistook the clenched fists as sign of Haku's disgust and impatience, that she was still in his presence. She reeled on aching legs, and ran for the tunnel. She ran and she ran. The tumultuous hammering in her chest drowned out the all else.

_I can't watch her go, but at least I can hear her leave. __She left me twice, it can happen thrice._ Haku intoned to himself.

An electric boom cracked over the ominous space over Haku and Chihiro. A web of rainbow colored splinters spread outward and over from the clock tower. Threads of electricity rocked at super natural speed over the night sky along the _kami-ka-kushi_ force field. Under the archway of the clock tower, the magical field suspended Chihiro in mid air, for a few devastating seconds before it dropped her limp, smoking body to the ground.

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**AN:**Would love any comments etc. Sorry it took a bit to update but I've been sick and still sick- plus I have work. eheheh This chapter was HARD to edit! Dunno how the original author got such and intense chapter written. I'm quite sure I replied to all reviews, but if I didn't please let me know. It was unintentional and I love to reply - it's just I'm going senile in this DISGUSTING humid summer. :( Have a good week everyone.

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	12. Six Nights

**AN: **I don't have a beta for this story, so feel free to point out any glaring and human mistakes. ^^

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**12: Six Nights**

The sun dipped from the heavens, fading day into the night. Spirits awoke into the drawing darkness, coming to life in the magical realm.

In another part of the realm, Hayate, in his apparent desperate attempt to find Chihiro, shoved Raiden aside. He splashed from the rising waters onto the stone steps. He left Raiden behind, disinterested in further conversation with the commoner, whom he thought was in desperate need of a haircut. . The street sprawled ahead of him, lined with quaint, festive food stalls reminiscent of period dramas he'd seen. All were painted in traditional hues of primary green and red, which according to Hayate's opinion, looked cheap and pokey. _What on earth would Chihiro be doing in such a place?_ He gritted his teeth with disgust. For a few moments, he missed the wispy back shadows in the stalls. Then he paused, blinking the fatigue from his vision. "I must be hallucinating," he mumbled under his breath, squinting into a shop to his left. The shadows seemed to be drifting around…and had limbs? He tried to shake the tableau from his head; sure he could dispel the ghostly apparitions.

Behind Hayate, Raiden leisurely rose from the waters, his clothes bone dry. A cordial smile split his face, as he watched spirits swimming around the lone human. _He's undoubtedly worried about his woman, that's why he's acting like a wild boar in heat, _Raiden kindly rationalized Hayate's behavior, when an idea clicked in his head. He continued eyeing the slightly tubby human man waddle through the spirits like a lop-sided penguin with one shoe on his foot, and the other in his hand. _"Wellll…," _he turned sideways, looking down to his thunder beast, "At least he hasn't started squealing like a girl yet, _ne_?_"_ Raiden nodded positively to Raiju. "But he will soon enough if I don't do something," Raising his eyes to the skies, Raiden searched the indigo darkness for inspiration. It wasn't long before he broke into a cheesy grin. "He needs to be told, right?" Raiden continued to Raiju, who merely snorted in derision.

Hayate's face by now, had paled to the extent he was almost glowing amidst the spirits around him. "W-What is this place?" he croaked, throat dry with panic. The fear riddling his face, contorted into a mask of shock. A flash of iridescent light smacked at the ground in front of him; Raiden, smartly appearing a split second later. Hayate's stomach fell to his feet. He leapt back. His arms shielded his face from the bluish aura exuding from Raiden.

Raiden stood astride before the quaking Hayate, brandishing his most disarming smile. He bowed courteously, as if a butler would to his master. He swept his arms to the right where trays of food magically filled with what resembled steamed onions, basted crispy skin quails, succulent fish rolls and plump moist dumplings. The spirit food vendor was preparing for his guests, happy for Raiden to up-sell his goods. "And on the right, we have the freshest gastronomic delights for our honoured guests," Raiden explained, playfully bowing with reverence.

Hayate's jaw dropped to the ground where his stomach was. "H-h-how did you get from _there_…" he jabbed at the empty space a few feet behind him, "...to _there_!?" he stammered jabbing in hysteria at Raiden's feet. A seed of suspicion sprouted in Hayates head, that Raiden, who towered over both him and the ghostly apparitions around him, might not be human.

"_Heeee_…" Raiden teased, giggling like a school girl, scratching his head with mock embarrassment. "This picture says a gazillion words, _ne?_ I'd probably market this place as a Fantasy Land, I think." Raiden motioned up and over their surrounds. This was the first time he had to profile himself or any enchanted realm to a human. And honesty was usually the best policy for to the God of Thunder and Lightning. "I like to start all relationships off on a clean billing, Hayate. _Sooo…,"_ he paused, biting his lip in contemplation, his mind whirring, sorting for the right words, to welcome Hayate to the magical world. "I'm Raiden-the-thunder-god-who-controls-all-thunder-and-lightning-in-the-universe. I-like-rainy-days-soya-bean-burgers-with-special-spirit-sauce-and-Carpenter-songs-are-the-bestest!" he rapped out in one breath. _Wasn't as bad as I thought!_ He nodded to himself with confidence, peering Hayate.

"I can even do magic tricks!" The Thunder God tried to sound casual, though the excitement brimmed over despite his best efforts. Even Hayate's expression frozen between mania and terror couldn't dampen his zeal. "Watch this!" Raiden expounded brightly. His eyes blazed blue, before suffusing into lightning white. A stern, martial expression set his face, and he eased with natural grace into his _Nan Chuan _stance.

"Dual Thunder Palms!" he whipped in a voice disciplined and clear, seamlessly moving into another martial arts stance. One foot pinned to the ground, the other extending, ending in a praying mantis stance before Hayate.

"Lightning Bolt!" A bolt of white lightning bolt shot from the sky, lashing with a poof at front of Hayate's curled up toes.

"Thunder God Palm!" Raiden's arms extended in perfect parallel to the ground at Hayate, his palms an inch from the man's heaving chest.

"Shocking Touch!" Raiden's daintily bent his pinky finger forward, tapping Hayate's collar. Instantly, the material deteriorated into a wall of crumbling ash.

"And my favourite, _Flying Thunder God!"_ Raiden blazed upwards in a streak of azure, piercing the clouds, and landing in his original position, before Hayate's brain could register the movement. Then, quite satisfied, Raiden spun around nonplussed to face Hayate. The Thunder God, in all his modesty, assumed his fantastical impromptu martial arts performance was rather, run of the mill. "Now, how about some spirit burgers, _ne_?" his preternaturally white teeth gleamed through his jovial smile. The god was relieved he'd made it rather obvious to Hayate the world he'd stumbled into, wasn't quite conventional.

"Say…_what…the…_?" Raiden slapped his palm to his forehead, catching sight of Hayate. "Maybe I should have left out the Carpenters song bit?" He asked no one in particular and blew a raspberry in exasperation. "Typical humans, they either take-off or faint when they can't handle you're a God," Raiden grumbled, pouting his lips like an upset child. He strode over to Hayate who lay unconscious. Hayate's clothes reduced to soot by Raiden's 'Shocking Touch', spiraled as dust into the breeze. Raiden hunched over Hayate's naked form and said, "Hmmm…looks like you need to work out my man. How does Chihiro handle you in your birthday suit?" Raiden cringed at the still human form, wincing at how Hayate had obviously treated his body more like a supersized amusement park, rather than a treasured temple. "I wonder what our future _daimyo _the Hak-myster is going to think about our latest visitor,_ ne _Raiju_?" _Raiden asked Raiji. He heaved Hayate onto his broad shoulders as he did so. His faithful beast strolled along, sniffing at Hayate's hand with some interest. In a moment of inspiration and hoping to catch his master off guard, he snapped at Hayate's hand dangling at Raiden's waist.

"Ah! NO EATING the guests Raiju! That's _soooo _yesterday. _Ne_?" Raiden scolded, smartly side stepping the thunder beast's errant mouth and behaviour. "B-a-d Raiju! No dried curried ramen balls for you tonight, boy."

Raiju stared with impertinence at his Master, lamenting as Raiden's lightening reflexes. He sat back on his hind legs in a huff, crushed that his master would deny him his beloved snacks. After all, he was merely attempting to sample Hayate. The thunder beast lowered his gaze side in penance, as his master climbed up the steps, past the bridge and into the bath house. Raiju didn't like the scent of the human man at all.

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_**Daimyo:**_ is similar to a mayor, or a person in a position of power. You'll find out more about it in future chapters.

**Raiden's moves:** The name of Raiden's moves are from the Mortal Kombat game, but only the names. The actions are my own creative spin for the names.

I've been sick for a long time, and just came back from vacation. I'll be moving countries again in a few months, so the only thing I can guarantee for any of my stories, is that updates will be sporadic. Thank you to everyone who reviewed- I have replied to all of them. If I haven't, please let me know as it was unintentional. ^^ Thank you to everyone who PM'd and encouraged me to keep going as well. Have a great week y'all.


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